| The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. The law includes the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or the "HITECH Act," which established programs under Medicare and Medicaid to provide incentive payments for the "meaningful use" of certified electronic health records (EHR) technology.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has a role in three areas of the HITECH Act:
- Implementation of the EHR incentive programs, including defining meaningful use of certified EHR technology;
- Establishment of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for EHR technology.
- Privacy and Security protections under the HITECH Act
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Implementation of the EHR Incentive Programs
Under the HITECH Act, the Medicare EHR incentive programs provide incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) that are meaningful users of certified EHRs. Incentive payments would be made to qualifying Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations for the meaningful use of certified EHR technology by their affiliated eligible professionals. The Medicaid EHR incentive program provides incentive payments to eligible professionals and hospitals for efforts to adopt, implement or upgrade certified EHR technology or for meaningful use in the first year and for meaningful use for up to another five years.
Under the HITECH Act, CMS administers the EHR incentive programs under Medicare and Medicaid. CMS prepared a proposed rule on the EHR incentive programs for public comment. The proposed rule includes the definition of meaningful use and other requirements for qualifying for incentive payments. CMS worked closely with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in developing the proposed rule. The comment period for the proposed rule closes on March 15, 2010. A link to the rule and related documents is accessible below in the Related Links Inside and Outside CMS.
Establishment of EHR Technology Standards and Certification Requirements
Under the HITECH Act, ONC has responsibility for developing standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for EHR technology. ONC has developed an interim final rule on those topics and also is drafting a notice of proposed rulemaking on the process for recognizing organizations to conduct the certification of health information technology.
Protecting Privacy and Security of Health Information
Patient privacy and security is an important consideration in implementing the EHR incentive programs. The HHS Office for Civil Rights, in consultation with CMS and ONC, is working to implement the Recovery Act provisions. More information on privacy and security related to the Health IT is available in the section "Health IT/Privacy and Security" and "HHS Office for Civil Rights" in the Related Links Outside CMS section below.
More information on CMS' implementation of the EHR incentive programs is available through the Downloads and Related Links Inside CMS sections below. More information on the benefits of Health IT is available in the section "Health IT/Recovery Act" in the Related Links Outside CMS section below.
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