Will Local Medical Practitioners Impliment Electronic Health Records

Here is a small excerpt from an article that I wrote for the Northern Nevada Issue of M.D. News. Check out the full article in July.

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009. This Act includes measures to modernize our nation's infrastructure, enhance energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need.
The overarching objective of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is to improve the health of Americans and the performance of the nation’s health system through an unprecedented investment in health information technology (HIT). The HIT initiative is an important part of health reform. Health professionals, public and private, will bring into action the full potential of technology to prevent and treat illnesses and to improve health.
A specific goal of Medicare and Medicaid Health IT provisions is to promote and provide incentives for the adoption of certified electronic health records (EHRs). The Recovery Act enables bonus payments for eligible professionals and hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid as an incentive to become meaningful users of certified EHRs. The law established maximum annual incentive dollar amounts and includes Medicare penalties for medical professionals failing to demonstrate the meaningful use of an EHR solution starting in 2015.
What does this mean for local medical practices? Final regulations will be released over the next few months, for now let’s take a look at the details known so far.
The recovery legislation includes over 30 billion for Health Information Technology (HIT) aimed at purchasing HIT for hospitals and clinics and rewarding doctors for using the technology. A majority of the HIT funding, just over $20 billion, is to provide Medicare and Medicaid payment incentives to certain doctors and hospitals that are “meaningful” users of electronic health records. The bill also codifies and provides $2 billion in additional financing for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). The ONC is chartered to oversee the HIT initiatives.
Total funding included for health IT is as follows:
• $2 billion for the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC)
• $20.819 billion in incentives through the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement systems to assist providers in adopting EHRs
• $4.7 billion for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program
• $2.5 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Distance Learning, Telemedicine, and Broadband Program
• $1.5 billion for construction, renovation, and equipment for health centers through the Health Resources and Services Administration
• $1.1 billion for comparative effectiveness research within the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
• $85 million for health IT, including telehealth services, within the Indian Health Service
• $500 million for the Social Security Administration
• $50 million for information technology within the Veterans Benefits Administration
For medical professionals the key portion of this funding is the $20.819 billion in incentives. This portion of the HIT Act will be provided to M.D.s, D.O.s, D.D.S.s, D.D.M.s, D.P.M.s, O.D.s and Chiropractors that are using Electronic Health Records (EHR) in a meaningful manner, which includes that the EHR technology is connected in a way to the exchange of information electronically that improves the quality of health care and promotes care coordination. Doctors who adopt and are using a certified EHR solution are eligible for up to $44,000 over a 5 year span.