Healthcare Information Technology Summary

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).

Prior to the federal mandate of EHR, research continued to show the fallacies of the healthcare system like the report published from the Institute of medicine, stating that “medical errors are the 8th leading cause of deaths in the U.S. and cost approximately forty billion dollars a year” (Overview, 2012). This was one of many indicators that healthcare needed to be reformed and in 2009, the president signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or HITECH Act, which mandated that all healthcare providers must comply and begin to transition to electronic medical records (EMR) and demonstrate “meaningful use.” This act set up a timeline, which established that practices and hospitals needed to be up and running with EMR in order to continue receiving reimbursements from federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare.

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is part of the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA) signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. The HITECT Act introduced the concept of ‘meaningful use’ which incentivized the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) for the overall improvement of healthcare. This act authorized payments to qualified provider groups that meet the 'meaning use ' requirements that are paid out over five year. According to data from the National Ambulatory Medical care Survey, 57% of office based physicians’ utilized EHR system as of 2011 and 52% of this physician plan to apply for the meaningful use incentives in same year. This is a 11% increase from the year before.

Although HIT can provide tools to help with decision making in regards to diagnosis, management of disease, treatment, and prevention, the current EHR’s do not have a link to support systems to help manage chronic care. Primary care practices must now shift their focus on healthy patients, as well as acute and chronically ill patients. With HIT a provider can effectively report the quality measures, however the current EHR’s cannot identify which patients may need particular services (3).

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.

Implementing to electronic medical records has many benefits such as reducing medical record errors, accuracy, having medical record access immediately, reducing medication errors and improving patient care. Monetary incentives are given to providers who demonstrate meaningful use. For those who do not, they face reduction in reimbursement amounts. “In 2017, reduction in reimbursement is 3%.” (National Center for Medical Records, n.d.)

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 health IT system is essential to transform the delivery of health care. Innovation within the IT system includes efficient data use through warehouses as they expand health information, which allows for big improvements in the technological use. These improvements would ensure that data user safety will allow the smooth exchange of information transfer electronically between different health care providers. In this case, most hospital employees and health care organizations understand how the health information technology (IT) is important for the HCO’s functions. The passing of “the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) legislation in 2009, with its specific attention to advancing EHRs, federal dollars are dedicated to expanding EHR use in physician offices and more” (Abdelhak pg. 180). This shows that a federal government has an ability to change in the healthcare industry, so the government should incorporate science and technology development. The private sector and government funding resources will also have a significant impact to play a great role in the exploration of new software operations in terms of advancing the technological environment. Advancing this area of the organization encourages health Information

Quality and care management innovations implemented by the Hill Physicians Medical Group were the use of health information technology (HIT), predictive modeling, and chronic care management. The Group capitalized $5.7 million towards the implementation of electronic medical records (EMRs) throughout their physician offices to assist with clinical workflow, management of patient health information (PHI), and integration evidence-based practice procedures. Predictive modeling was used to manage chronic conditions by utilizing a Priority Score to establish who might need major health care services. As such, nurse case managers were able to

Combined with data analytics, aggregate-level EHR enable examination and development of effective medicines and therapies for chronic diseases (Kohli & Tan, 2016). There are several forces that are driving many of the changes to the EHR including health and safety concerns with the number of preventable deaths from medical errors , a changing society, the internet, with an increasing amount of mobile patients, as well as government response (Gartee, 2011) The response to the IOM report was swift and positive, within both the government and private sectors (Gartee, 2011). The government responded with establishing a position of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “develop, maintain, and direct the implementation of a strategic plan to guide the nationwide implementation of interoperable health information technology in both the public and private health care sectors that will reduce medical errors, improve quality, and produce greater value for health care expenditures (Gartee,

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 committed federal resources by creating incentives for integrating EHR and EMR systems with patient-accessible websites. These integrations offer sweeping advantages for health care companies that include:

The passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Act “encouraged healthcare organizations and providers to adopt and effectively utilize certified electronic health records (EHRs)” (Conrad, Hanson, Hansenau, & Stocker-Schneider, 2012, p. 443). In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) instituted Meaningful Use (MU) as a form of “incentive programs that governs the use of EHRs and allow eligible providers and hospitals to earn incentive payments by meeting specific criteria” (Yoder-Wise, 2014, p. 195). Consequently, as cited by Berfeld and Parker (2010) “Adoption of computers in care and an electronic medical record (EMR) within healthcare organizations is no longer an option, but a necessity for safe and cost effective provision of care” (p. 17).

The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) introduced by President Obama in 2009 included goals to improve economic efficiency by increasing technology in healthcare (Hoffman & Podgurski, 2009). The goal of the ARRA was to computerize the health records of all Americans by the year 2014 and it dedicated 19 billion dollars to the promotion of healthcare technology to meet this goal (Hoffman & Podgurski, 2009). The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which is a part of the ARRA, provided an opportunity for healthcare organizations to receive financial incentives for meeting certain levels of meaningful use through adoption and use of health information systems and an electronic health record (EHR) (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). The enactment of the ARRA and the HITECH Act have led to healthcare organizations and providers entering the technology market in search of a system to meet the needs of their practice organization and patients with the capability of qualifying for the government proposed incentives. As demand was placed on the technology suppliers, a large variety of health information systems became available and are still being created for purchase. With so many options available in the health information technology marketplace, it is imperative that current purchasing entities fully evaluate systems for effective implementation using a reliable and comprehensive approach.

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report, To Err is Human (1999), there are 98,000 patients dying in the U.S. each year due to preventable medical errors. Many of these deaths could have been prevented had a computer system been in place to provide information to physicians. Sadly, these numbers have not improved since the publishing of the report and the number of deaths due to medical errors in the U.S. has jumped to more than 400,000 per year (Balgrosky, 2015).

Many health care organizations have already invested considerably in implementing administrative information systems and a handful of clinical applications. They are now wrestling with how to successfully expand their clinical information system capabilities in an effort to improve patient safety, increase health care quality, and decrease costs. Examples of clinical information system expansion include everything from computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems to bar-coding medication administration systems to fully electronic medical record (EMR) systems. Health system organizations continue to move forward with the adoption and implementation of electronic clinical information systems that promote patient safety. Physicians have also begun to invest in health care information systems, including EMRs, but most are in large practices of fifty or more providers. Health