It’s a law! Enacted and signed by president Obama on February 17, 2009 as ‘The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act’ (HITECH Act) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The law reflects the government’s commitment to revamp the healthcare system, in order to provide healthcare services with improved efficiency, higher quality of service, and in a secure and safe manner to Americans. From the government’s stand point it’s an investment in the future infrastructure for healthcare service provision and management, with the objective of ensuring each person receives better care at a lower cost.
It’s an opportunity! Although there are many challenges, as it’s usually the case when new systems and technology are rolled out, the EHR revolution driven by the
stimulus package represents a great opportunity for the industry to upgrade, innovate and fund the upfront development required to be prepared to render healthcare services in the next few years.
But, through this new initiative, the government is actually facilitating financing of the upfront funding required for infrastructure, standards, policies & procedures definition, requirements and certifications required, to insure the new paradigm truly delivers the expectations of better quality of healthcare service at a lower cost to providers and individuals set forth, all resulting in a healthier nation.
What Funding Is Available?
The law authorizes roughly $36 billion to be invested in the health information technology infrastructure and incentives to motivate adoption by healthcare providers.
Funding for the Health Information Technology (HIT) infrastructure supported by the
stimulus Package is focused in two areas: Promotion of the development of the HIT infrastructure, and Incentives to healthcare providers for adoption of EHR.
The available funding is structured as incentive payments to providers, State Grants, competitive grants and loans.
For more information, click here to download a NVTS White Paper in PDF format.
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