Achieving ‘Meaningful Use’ of Electronic Medical Records to Get Stimulus Funding

Summary

ARRA and HITECH Acts provide stimulus funding for electronic health record use, with hospital-specific objectives.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act will offer stimulus funding to eligible providers who achieve ‘meaningful use’ of electronic health records.  As we wait for the full and formal definition of ‘meaningful use’ to be announced this spring, our attention turns to achieving ‘meaningful use’ based on what we already know.

In August 2009, the HIT Policy Committee submitted to the National Coordinator recommendations for defining meaningful use. Their matrix outlines objectives and measures that must be recorded, accessed and reported in order to achieve meaningful use.

The HIT Policy Committee matrix goes on to provide further detail of such objectives and measures for 2011, 2013 and 2015 in direct response to the Meaningful Use Workgroup’s recommendations. The matrix — which can be used by health care organizations as a readiness guideline  — also outlines differences between objectives and measures for hospitals as compared to those required of other eligible providers.

At Harmony Healthcare IT, we can help you to assess your readiness for achieving ‘meaningful use’ of electronic health records.

Nov 19 2009

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