The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was put into place as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and was signed and made a part of law in February 2009. It sponsors the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology. (www.healthcareitnews.com). There was $22 billion and of this $19.2 billion was supposed to be used as a method to increase the use or the Electronic Health Records by the doctors and healthcare facilities. (www.hitechanswers.net). Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act consists of several subtitles. The subtitle D of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act deals with the privacy and security issues that are associated with the electronic transmission of health information. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act requires that as of 2011 all healthcare providers are going to be presented with the opportunity of financial incentives for showing meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). The proposed incentives will be offered up until 2015 and after that, penalties may occur for the failure of representing the use of EHR. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act even started grants for the training centers for all staff members that are required to support a health information technology infrastructure. (www.healthcareitnews.com). While the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act is in place, it will subject mandatory penalties for willful neglect. The civil fines cost more with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. The fines can be increase... ... middle of paper ... ...fines for breaches. There were federal grants and/or incentives for those organizations and individuals that chose to use the EHR via the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. The people are so sure that the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act would work that they even provide incentives for training programs so that the people can be well educated and knowledgeable in regards to the EHR system. We all have medical records in some physician's office and we would like to know that our medical history is kept safe from those who does not have permission to access our information. Since the HITECH Act allows a variety of random audits, healthcare organizations and individuals will work harder to ensure that they are up to par on all of the federal guidelines in regards to their patients privacy and security.
...). Privacy and Health Information Technology. Journal of Law Medicine, 37(2), 121-149. Retrieved January 28, 2011 from CINAHL database
The federal government has taken a stance to standardized care by creating incentive programs that are mandated under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) of 2009. This act encourages healthcare providers and healthcare institutions to adopt Meaningful use in order to receive incentives from Medicare and Medicaid. Meaningful use is the adoption of a certified health record system that acquires or obtains specified objectives about a patient. The objectives or measures are considered gold standard practices with the EHR system. Examples of the measures include data entry of vital signs, demographics, allergies, entering medical orders, providing patients with electronic copies of their records, and many more pertinent information regarding the patient (Friedman et al, 2013, p.1560).
The health information networks factor into the enhancement of the patient-centered management system, in that they help with the implementation of the Electronic health record. The HITECH Act for example allocated “18 billion through the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement systems as incentives for hospitals and physicians who are meaningful users of EHR systems”(About the HITECH, n.d.). This is a beneficial way to promote the use of electronic health records and have them become universally utilized across the nation. NHIN is also an excellent network that is more widespread and contains policies as well as standards that help with the safe trade of data. NHIN is the biggest network that all other health information networks hope to achieve. The NHIN is a contributor to the expansion of the EHR and it also further improves the patient-centered management system by having the policies they have. These policies assist with keeping the information in the system safe and also helping many different entities to become a part of its use. Some of the entities involved are the Center for Disease Control and prevention, Social Security Administration, Department of Defense and Kaiser Permanente among others. Both CHIN and RHINO implement the use of electronic health record, which makes it more widespread,
The HITECH Act is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health act passed in 2009. The main points of the act concern security and the technology surrounding the Electronic Health Record (EHR) of each patient. They are in three stages:
The U. S government passed the American Recovery Act in 2009 that established incentives and penalties to promote EHR use. From this legislation the Meaningful Use Program for EHR’s s was created. Through The Meaningful Use Program the U.S. government is able to support the adoption and use of EHR technology to enhance and revolutionize health care. The goal of the program is to increase EHR adoption, improve quality, safety, reduce disparities, and improve public health (hmsa , 2012).
Portability can improve patient care. Patients no longer have to “tote” their cumbersome medical records around anymore. EHR’s give physicians and clinicians access to critical healthcare information in the palm of their hand, which ultimately leads to improved patient care outcomes. EHR’s also provide security to vital medical and personal healthcare information. Organizations like HIPPA defines policies, procedures and guidelines for preserving the privacy and security of discrete distinguishable health information (HHS.gov,
It is not unreasonable for a patient to expect particular services from their healthcare providers. What services should be considered reasonable and which fall under the context of unreasonable? Should the specialist, your family physician referred you to, have access to your past medical history? What happens when you are traveling and have to make a trip to the emergency room, will your physician at home get all the information from that visit or will the ER physician have access to your medical history? Medical information recorded in paper format makes these tasks very difficult, if not impossible. "Fortunately, there is a growing movement to change that, using electronic information technology[3]." The use of this type of technology allows for "high-quality, safe, well-coordinated, and efficient care[4]." Society today is ever changing, we change jobs, location of residence, and doctors frequently. Many of our doctors and hospitals remain stuck in the medical stone age. While people speak of a medical "system," American medicine is in fact very unsystematic: it lacks standards, measures, and the ability to exchange information that constitute a true system. The medical industry has taken to every kind of clinical technology; from digital thermometers to CT scanners. However, the adoption of information technology in the medical industry lags behind the rest of our economy.
Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
Administrative Mandates, including the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010, are all part of administrative simplification and the need for systems optimiza...
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act has provided PMH a great opportunity. The HITECH Act has provided funding for hospitals who are interested in implementing telehealth technology, that will allow patients and providers to connect with each other by using state of the art technology. Telehealth offer preventative and specialized patient care to many of the nation’s 62 million rural residents where hospitals are often lacking (2017). This type of technology is important for hospitals such as PMH, because the rising healthcare costs will make personal access to health care even more difficult. Telehealth technology will allow PMH to connect with other providers remotely and relieve some of the workload
Meaningful Use (MU) is defined as a healthcare provider’s usage of certified EHR technology in a way that can be measured largely in quality and in quantity. By establishing meaningful use using an Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) certified EHR program; healthcare providers can collect stimulus money, as arranged through the HITECH act of 2009. MU is designed to improve healthcare quality, efficiency, safety, and help to reduce health disparities. Also this helps to maintain privacy and security of patient healthcare information. (EHR Incentives & Certification, 2014)
Health information exchanges (HIEs), formalized at the state-level by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), were developed under Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009. HIEs are the health information technologies (HITs) that mobilize the interoperability of personal health information (PHI) across providers, healthcare systems, and platforms (Magnuson, 2014). HIE allows healthcare providers and patients to access and securely share health information electronically. This exchange improves the efficiency, effectiveness of patient care, patient safety, and healthcare costs (US Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2014) by reducing duplication of services and medication errors and increasing
The EHR is a computerized health record that will take place of the paper chart. The health care information will be available to all health care providers at anytime, anywhere. The record will contain medical history, diagnosis, medications, immunization, allergies, diagnostics and lab results; from past doctors, emergency department visits, school, pharmacies, and out patient laboratories and facilities (Department of health and human services, 2014). Health care providers will be able to access evidence-based tools to aid in decision-making. EHR will also streamline workflow, and support changes in payer requirements and consumer expectations. In 2004, “the HHS secretary, Tommy Thompson appointed David Brailer as the national health information coordinator to provide: leadership for the development and nationwide implementation of a interoperable HIT infrastructure, with the goal of establishing electronic health records...
An electronic health information exchange is the sharing of health related information between patients, providers, nursing staff, pharmacists and other health care organizations. The main objective of an electronic health information exchange (HIE) is for patients’ personal health information to be available, accessible, and sharable at any time and to follow them from physician to physician, increasing interoperability while decreasing cost and time. There are many benefits to an organization implementing a health information exchange; an HIE can decrease unnecessary services and reduce costs by making administrative duties more efficient. It also allows patients to get more involved with their own health care and encourages a better quality of care. The health information exchange improves the quality of care in healthcare organizations. One area of concern when being a part of the health information exchange is technical issues that could occur in the system. Getting patient information to successfully transfer from provider to provider, state agencies included, is a challenge that health information organizations can face. “Although these organizations have proven the ability to receive information, they have realized that a lack of consensus in terms of standards prevents them from pushing data effectively and economically.”(Milstine, 2011 p.761) This issue has the potential to be a problem for health information managers because HIM professionals must follow all laws and standards for protecting patient personal health information.
Health information management involves the practice of maintaining and taking care of health records in hospitals, health insurance companies and other health institutions, by the use of electronic means (McWay 176). Storage of medical information is carried out by health information management and HIT professionals using information systems that suit the needs of these institutions. This paper answers four major questions concerning health information systems.