Health Information Technology Research Paper

The Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health Act also known as The HITECH Act, is Title 13 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that was signed into law February 17, 2009 and enacted September 23, 2009 (Rouse). This piece of legislation was designed to stimulate the adoption of electronic health records (EHR). HITECH regulations were designed to reduce healthcare costs, provide safer practices, and improve the quality of services provided to the patient. In addition, HITECH encourages access for patients through the EHR systems to their personal ePHI (electronic protected health information) for patient-centered care. HITECH also promotes health information exchanges across the country, state, and/or healthcare

For instance, the “meaningful use” aspects of the law must be evaluated by the ONC and demonstrated as effective, so that the incentives provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may be obtained. “Meaningful Use” has been established in three stages, each stage has certain core objectives with deadlines for implementation and use. Furthermore, these specific requirements must be able to be performed properly for a two year period to gain acceptance and advancement to the next stage. For example, computerized physician order-entry (CPOE), clinical decision support, capturing patient information, and being able to exchange as well as integrate patient information from other sources, must be met and proven reliable in order to advance into “meaningful use” stage two. Final implementation of the new or updated EHR systems must be completed by 2015 in order to receive incentives. If interoperability has not been met, fines will be imposed on the eligible practice or professional until the new EHR is

To date, there have been multiple studies on the different aspects of the Health IT infrastructure. These studies have shown many challenges ahead as well as some positive outcomes. One study quoted within the Article of “A Robust Health Data Infrastructure” stipulates, “180,000 outpatients and 800 clinicians in communities that had adopted EHRs from multiple vendors found that, over a multi-year period, the overall cost of outpatient care was reduced by 3.1% relative to the control group.” (Jason 14). The outcomes of this study have proven success with the implementation of EHR systems and the outlook is