On February 17, 2009, the President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) which included  the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). The HITECH Act includes provisions to promote meaningful use of health information technology to improve the quality and value of American health care.

The HITECH Act authorizes incentive payments for eligible Medicare and Medicaid providers’ that demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.

In 2015, providers are expected to have adopted and be actively utilizing an EHR in compliance with the “meaningful use” definition or they will be subject to financial penalties under Medicare.

The HITECH Act of 2009 presents primary care providers with a unique opportunity to improve the quality of care through  health information technology. While it overcomes the financial hurdle that many providers face the HITECH Act in itself does not address the heart of the issue which is a lack of understanding and fear of electronic systems amongst a  providers.

Overcoming Barriers to Adoption

Providers seeking to meaningfully use EHRs face a variety of challenging tasks.  Those tasks include assessing needs, selecting and negotiating with a system vendor or reseller, implementing project management, and instituting workflow changes to improve clinical performance and ultimately, outcomes.  Past experience has shown that robust local technical assistance can result in effective implementation of EHRs and quality improvement throughout a defined geographic area.

Regional Extension Centers

The HITECH Act, authorizes a Health Information Technology Extension Program.  By statute, the Extension Program consists of a national Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC), and Regional Extension Centers (Regional Centers).

Among other things, the purpose of the Regional Centers is to furnish assistance, defined as education, outreach, and technical assistance, to help providers in their geographic service areas select, successfully implement, and meaningfully use certified EHR technology to improve the quality and value of health care.

Each Regional Center will plan and implement the outreach, education, and technical assistance programs necessary to meet the objective of assisting providers  to improve the quality and value of care they furnish by attaining or exceeding meaningful use criteria established by the Secretary.  Regional Centers are expected to work with both priority primary-care providers who have not yet adopted EHR systems, and with priority primary-care providers who have existing EHR systems, to assist them in achieving meaningful use of certified EHR technology.

On-site technical assistance will be a key service offered by the Regional Centers to priority primary-care providers, and will represent a significant portion of the Regional Centers’ activities.  With a limited window of time and hundreds of thousands of health care providers reaching every provider will be a challenge. Visit ONC Health IT website for more details.