American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) – HITECH Act
Provisions for healthcare information technology (HITECH) portion of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed by the president February 17, 2009, provide reimbursement incentives for eligible professionals using Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology.
The funding will be per-physician, based on either Medicare or Medicaid charges, and will begin in 2012 for those who achieve “Meaningful Use” in 2011. Beginning in 2015, Medicare will start applying penalties to hospital and physicians who fail to adopt EHRs. The Act does not include any Medicaid penalties. GeboMD can help you understand the opportunities and the criteria as they develop. We can also provide the software and processes to help you maximize the long-term beneficial effects of stimulus initiatives in your organization.
The focus on meaningful use is a recognition that better health care does not come solely from the adoption of technology itself but through the exchange and use of health information to best inform clinical decisions at the point of care.
Note — Many of the provisions in the statute require the development of regulations to specify implementation requirements. The Statute mandates what should occur at a very high level. These mandates are then referred to the appropriate federal department for implementation. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is charged with the development of the regulations and other information that will specify how the requirements should be implemented and the associated timeline.
Eligible Professionals
Generally speaking, for purposes of Meaningful Use, “eligible professional” is defined in the following ways:
Medicare
A physician as defined in section 1861(r) of the Social Security Act*, which includes the following five types of professionals:
- Doctor of medicine or osteopathy
- Doctor of dental surgery or medicine
- Doctor of podiatric medicine
- Doctor of optometry
- Chiropractor
Medicaid
- Physicians
- Dentists
- Certified nurse-midwives
- Nurse practitioners
Physician assistants who are practicing in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) or Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) led by a physician assistant.
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