The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009 ( Arra )

In 2008, the American economy broke down. Known as the Global Financial Crisis, this is widely considered to be the worst financial crisis since the 1930’s when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression hit.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 identified three main components of meaningful use: the use of a certified EHR in a meaningful manner, electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of care, and the use of technology to submit clinical outcomes and quality measures (Heath Resources and Service Administration, n.d.). ARRA includes many measures to modernize our nation’s infrastructure, with the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act” being an example. The HITECH Act is an effort led by Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) in support of electronic health records and meaningful use (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC 2016). According to Galbraith (2013), the HITECH Act aims to promote the use of EHRs by providing over $27 billion in monetary incentives for health care providers that become “meaningful users”. CMS uses these core objectives to determine if a health care provider has satisfied meaningful use and is eligible to receive financial incentives (Galbraith, 2013).

Organizations will have these incentives and programs in place that will seek to improve the over all health of Americans along with the performance of our health care system. “Meaningful Use” through the use of the electronic medical records system will have five areas that they will be focusing on to do just that. These goals consist of;

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act made an investment in the year 2009 to encourage the adoption and implementation of the electronic health records (EHRs)(Cite). EHRs incentive payments were authorized through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they privately and securely used EHRs for achieving improvements in care delivery by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). The healthcare organizations are expected to demonstrate meaningful use of EHRs. This rule of meaningful use has been implemented to strike a balance between acknowledging the urgency of adopting EHRs for improving the healthcare system and identifying the challenges that would be put forth

In 2009, even though electronic health records (EHRs) were available, many hospitals were still using paper charting. EHR technology is expensive and, consequently, was being deterred. Therefore, HITECH was enacted.

In order to accelerate the use of health information technology, the U.S. government enacted the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

People believe the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA had a centralizing effect, yet there are motives that support, as well as some that oppose the act. The act is sometimes referred to as The Stimulus or The Recovery Act. The United States Congress in February of 2009 passed this Act and it was signed in the same month, by President Barack Obama.

In 2008, the housing market crashed, businesses were failing, and people were losing their jobs. This is how Barack Obama started off his presidency. Already, fingers were being pointed and cries were maybe. This would be the start off to Obama’s presidency. His creation of the Stimulus Package created a lot of criticism, but at the end of the day, it fixed the economy. Now Obama is ending his presidency with a flourishing economy and GDP Growth. Even if the Stimulus Package was one of the most criticized plans in his presidency, it did exactly what it was meant for, which was to fix the economy and create growth.

In 2009, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed into law as a stimulus package in efforts to reverse the financial recession in the United States. Part of the legislation included, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act that incentivized hospitals and physician practices to adopt certified electronic health records (EHR) and to encourage the use of health care technology in a meaningful way (Falk, 2014). The ultimate goal of HITECH and Meaningful Use (MU) is to create a national healthcare infrastructure that is connected, develop systems to warehouse and share data, and in turn improve care and efficiencies for patients and providers (Blumenthal & Tavenner, 2010). The raid adoption

In 2009, the HITECH Act was formulated to increase the implementation of EHR’s and reinforcing technology with the U.S. The HITECH was signed into law and it is considered as a portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. THE HITECH ACT provided the ONC the right to administer and place standards on the stimulus program. Also, it created grants designed for training centers for the employees that needed to reinforce and support all new health IT foundation within the healthcare organizations.

An Electronic Health Record is a computerized form of a patient’s medical chart. These records allow information to be readily available to authorized providers during a patient’s encounter with the healthcare system. These systems do not only contain medical histories, current medications and insurance information, they also track patients’ diagnoses, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images and lab tests/results (source). The fundamental aspect of EHRs is that they are able to share a patient’s information quickly across service lines and even between different healthcare organizations. Information is at the fingertips of lab techs, primary care physicians, pharmacies, clinics, etc. The

Legislation such as the Health Information Technology for Economics and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act promoted meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) to provide better patient outcomes (CDC, n.d.). Meaningful use is regulated by CMS and National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and is based on five goals including: improving quality, safety, efficiency and reducing health disparities, engage patients and families in their health, improve care coordination, improve population and public health,

Meaningful Use is the incentive program with the intention of helping physicians provide better care to their patients through financial rewards and punishments. Those Eligible professionals (EPs) who choose not to demonstrate meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) are about to face a 1% penalty in their Medicare reimbursements. These penalties will increase by 1% each year until 2019 when they finally cap-off at 5%. And just to make it that much more aggravating, EPs won’t get away with a one-time demonstration, they must continue to demonstrate meaningful use each and every year through 2019 to avoid these penalties.

Almost every industry is now computerized and enhanced with the latest technology—equipped for rapid data retrieval and transmission. Like all computerized technology, the format of patient health records has evolved dramatically over time. With the evolution of technology, a need has been identified for the improvement of efficiency and productivity in the transmission of patient data (Practice Fusion, 2016). In order to achieve this goal, patient medical records have now adopted an electronic format and are now referred to as electronic health records (EHRs). Both medical professionals and patients can equally benefit from the use of EHR. This format of record keeping offers easy access to medical records to patients and providers, simplified data entry and compilation, quick storage of medical information, reduced chance for error in the composition and interpretation of physician notes. EHRs may also aid in the transmission of data, easy transmission of lab results, patient medication allergies, imaging and pre-existing conditions, reduces the chance for duplication of lab tests, and saving time and money for both patients and healthcare professionals (Ana Maria College, 2016). In an effort to modernize our nation’s infrastructure, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act, was established (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012). The HITECH Act supports the concept of EHR meaningful use, a

Health information Technology for Economic and Clinical (HITECH) - was established to support electronic health records and the supporting technology in the United States. It was also established to expand data base breach notifications and the protection of electronic protected health information. This act was signed by Barrack Obama in 2009 and it made documentation for health care easier and more protected in which it spread like wildfire.