In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Health Information Technology (HITECH) act provision was passed into law. Billions of dollars was allocated by the federal government to provide financial incentives to hospitals and healthcare providers who will implement health information technology and electronic health records. HITECH seeks to improve American health care delivery and patient care through an unprecedented investment in Health Information Technology (HIT) (healthit.gov). Technology is changing fast and the use of digital technology has transformed the way people exchange and use information. Laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices are now the main tools that people use to create and send information. In order to cope up with these changes, the healthcare industry must adapt the use of technology to record, store and exchange information. Meaningful use (MU) is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria (healthit.gov). MU sets goals that are about healthcare, not about information technology. The first overall goal is to use EHR technology to improve quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care. For nurses and other healthcare professionals improving the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient is always a
Electronic health records can provide many benefits for providers and their patients, but the benefits depend on how they 're used. Meaningful use is the set of standards defined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Incentive Programs that governs the use of electronic health records and allows eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria. The goal of meaningful use is to promote the spread of electronic health records to improve health care in the United States. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provides the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) with the authority to establish
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).
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 marks a new era in American health care. Yet in many ways, this era began more than a year earlier, with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and its Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provisions. Although HITECH may be viewed narrowly as legislation to
A: The term Meaningful use is using certified electronic health record (EHR) technology to maintain privacy and secure patient health information, by improving care coordination, population, and public health, help patients and family to be engaged in
In 2009, more than $30 billion dollars in incentives was allocated by congress for hospitals to institute meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) by 2011 (Adler-Milstein, Bates, & Jha, 2011) (Murphy, 2010). The Meaningful Use Act is a complicated principle that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) as well as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act.
Meaningful Use engages patients and families in their health care, improve care coordination, improve population and public health and maintain privacy and security ("CMS," 2015, para. 1). Healthcare providers must show CMS that they are using their EHRs in ways that can positively affect the care of their patients. To do this, providers must meet all of the requirements established by CMS for this program and be able to demonstrate Meaningful Use of their EHRs to receive incentive reimbursement. The Meaningful Use program is divided into 3 stages which span 2011 (data capture and sharing), 2013 (advanced clinical processes) and 2015 (improved outcomes).
aperwork; the NYU Langone Medical Center chooses to implement new health informatics technologies to impact its health care delivery and management by purchasing their "Meaningful Use" Certified electronic health records system, “Epic.” Because the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) stimulus package allocation of funds for hospitals who meet the requirements of what is known as "Meaningful
HITECH act is part of the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment) Act of 2009 designed to promote the adoption of Health information Technology (HIT) and meaningful use of the HIT. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and CMS have spent more than 25.9 billion under the HITECH act to create the HIT infrastructure and a nationwide network for Electronic Health Records (EHR). According to Washington Post, as much 36.5 billion has been spent toward incentives and EHR infrastructure.
The ARRA includes the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which pursues to improve American Healthcare and patient care through an extraordinary investment in Healthcare IT (HIT). The requirements of the HITECH Act are precisely designed to work jointly to provide the necessary assistance and technical operation to providers, enable grammatical relation and organization within and among states, establish connectivity in case of emergencies, and see to it the workforce is properly trained and equipped to be meaningful users of certified Electronic Health Records (EHRs). These computer software products are designed collaboratively to intensify the footing for every American to profit from an electronic health record (EHR) as part of a modernized, interrelated, and vastly improved grouping of care delivery.
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 order to be compliant with the mandates requiring healthcare providers to adopt electronic medical records and billing system, the clinic is faced with a major undertaking. In spite of incentives or penalties, the practice realizes that adopting an EMR will increase quality care, while improving communication, and tracking patient outcomes. As part of our strategic planning process, I have challenged all managers to dissect, and understand the details surrounding the HITECH Act, and begin providing education to the staff. I have also assembled a task force that will explore the best path
The goal in healthcare today is to achieve better patient outcomes. Technology is changing daily that affects how patient care is provided. As the world around us continues to move into a more advanced technology based healthcare system incentives are offered to qualifying healthcare entities, provided they are utilizing approved health information technology (IT) to comply with standards set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (Jones, Rudin, Perry, & Shekelle, 2014). Standards such as meaningful use help ensure with the use of electronic health records (EHR) that patients are receiving quality care (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], n.d.). This paper will define and discuss the importance and implications of meaningful use relating to healthcare. Several key points will be discussed including an overview of meaningful use, analysis, further recommendations and a conclusion.
The road to patient-centered care was paved with the passing of the HITECH act, which authorized incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid to clinicians and hospitals when they use EHRs privately and securely to achieve specified improvements in care delivery. If providers do not become meaningful users of EHRs by 2015, penalties will be triggered through reduced Medicare payments. These provisions aim to create a nationwide electronic health system that is efficient and secure to improve health outcomes and lower the cost of healthcare. To accomplish these goals, the federal government allotted $19.2 billion of funding to promote the adoption and meaningful use of interoperable health information technology and electronic health records (EHRs).
Healthcare Information Technology has drastically changed in the past 10 years. With billions of dollars being spent to insure improvement in the healthcare industry. In 2009 President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The President did this with hope to improve the delivery of healthcare in the United States by giving incentives for the implementation of Electronic Health Record and meaningful use of them. To become eligible for meaningful use is somewhat different for hospitals than it is professionals.
Meaningful use is advancement of our the way we administer health care using the EHR system. It provides improvement in several ways, which include: engagement with the patients and their family, providing better privacy and security with the patient's information, improvement in the way we coordinate care, and helping the clinic run more smooth. Meaningful use can help make your job as a medical assistant easier. For one, you don't have to try and sort through paper to find information you need for a patient. It helps cut down time for preparing each patient's files and if the physician decides that he needs additional information, we are able to locate it within minutes easily.