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| Home > ARRA Stimulus Update Overview On February 27, 2009, when President Obama signed into law the $787 billion economic stimulus package, it included $19.2 billion for healthcare information technology (HIT). This stimulus package has become known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Title XIII of this Act, the section dealing with health information technology, (which can be found on pages 112-165) is now known as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. This unprecedented, federal financial support for HIT offers enormous opportunities for the expansion of electronic health records into more physician offices and hospitals along with the linkage of these records to improve the quality and coordination of care through community and regional health information exchanges. The HITECH Act includes:
Below you will find links to key web-sites that will keep you updated on the most recent news of the ARRA and, more specifically, HITECH. The final section provides links to key documents that pertain to this fast-changing area of developing the nation’s electronic healthcare infrastructure. Important Links Web-sites that provide updates and current information include:
State HIE Exchange Cooperative Agreement Awards
Complete In March 2010, ONC completed the announcement of State
Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program awards.
Fifty-six states, eligible territories, and qualified State Designated
Entities (SDE) received awards. The State HIE Cooperative Agreement Program funds
states’ efforts to build capacity for exchanging health information
across the health care system both within and across states. Awardees
are responsible for increasing connectivity and enabling patient-centric
information flow to improve the quality and efficiency of care.
Key to this is the continual evolution and advancement of necessary
governance, policies, technical services, business operations, and
financing mechanisms for HIE over each state, territory, and SDE’s
four-year performance period. This program is building on existing
efforts to develop regional and state-level health information exchange
while moving toward nationwide interoperability. Click
here to see the list of awardees and the amounts. Update on Meaningful Use On December 30, 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services
CMS announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to implement
provisions of the Recovery Act that provide incentive payments for
the meaningful use of certified EHR technology. The proposed rule
outlines provisions governing the EHR incentive programs, including
the definition of “meaningful use” of EHR technology.
The proposed rule defines the term "meaningful EHR user"
as an eligible provider or eligible hospital that, during the specified
reporting period, demonstrates meaningful use of certified EHR technology
in a form and manner consistent with certain objectives and measures
presented in the regulation. This proposed rule would phase in more
robust criteria for demonstrating meaningful use in three stages.
Stage 1 meaningful use criteria focuses on electronically
capturing health information in a coded format, using that information
to track key clinical conditions and communicating that information
for care coordination purposes. It also calls for implementing clinical
decision support tools to facilitate disease and medication management
and reporting clinical quality measures and public health information.
There are separate criteria for Hospitals
and for Providers.
CMS officials intend that Stage 2 criteria be
proposed by the end of 2011 and the Stage 3 criteria
be proposed by the end of 2013. On the same day ONC issued its Standards and Certification Interim
Final Rule (IFR), the second of the three key rules supporting the
HITECH-mandated Electronic Health Record Medicare and Medicaid Incentive
Programs. This IFR specifies the adoption of an initial set of standards,
implementation specifications, and certification criteria for electronic
health record (EHR) technology. The IFR describes the standards
that must be met by certified EHR technology to exchange healthcare
information among providers and between providers and patients.
This initial set of standards begins to define a common language
to ensure accurate and secure health information exchange across
different EHR systems. The IFR describes standard formats for clinical
summaries and prescriptions, standard terms to describe clinical
problems, procedures, laboratory tests, medications and allergies,
and standards for the secure transportation of this information
using the Internet. Both the Meaningful Use and the Standards and Certification rules will be subject to a 60-day comment period starting on January 13, 2010. HIMSS has issued a helpful summary of both of these rules related the the Meaningful Use provision. Links to the CMS proposed rule and fact sheets, can be found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Recovery/11_HealthIT.asp The direct link to the Rule is: http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-31217_PI.pdf ONC’s interim final rule may be viewed at http://healthit.hhs.gov/standardsandcertification
along with links to FAQs or click here for the direct link to the
file that appears in the Federal
Register. In early 2010 ONC intends to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking
for the third key area related of the HITECH-mandated Electronic
Health Record Medicare and Medicaid Incentive Programs: the certification
of health information technology. Key Current Meetings and Documents Certain key documents have become essential reading to understand the landscape of the HIT world that is being impacted by ARRA. Below are the current articles that we feel are essential for the current environment. They are arranged by date with the most recent at the beginning:
Potential Sources of Funds: There are at present no open funding opportunities Closed Funding Opportunities (Pending Award) include: Closed Funding Opportunities (Awarded)
Additional Documents and Articles on Issues Related to the ARRA Stimulus Package
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