Electronic Health Record
The conversion of patient health information to electronic health record is inevitable and has many benefits although many health providers are already storing and processing health information in electronic format. In fact, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is encouraging the conversion of non-electronic health record into electronic health information by offering bonus payment incentives to eligible healthcare professionals and acute care professionals. The final 2009 rule proposed by HHS also kwon as Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act allocates $27 billion for the next 10 years in multi-year bonus payments as high as $44,000 through Medicare and $63,750 through Medicaid per participant to encourage eligible participants or meaningful users to effectively use information technology for managing health information in digital format. Eligible professionals and hospitals (except mobile surgical centers) can take advantage of this incredible opportunity in 2011 and 2012 by meeting 15 core objectives that include converting and recording more than half of patients' demographic information electronically, maintaining electronic medication list for more than 80% of patients and implementing systems to protect the privacy and security of patient data stored in electronic format. Providers and hospitals must also implement 5 additional tasks from a menu of 10 options. Originally, there were a broad set of objectives to be met in order to qualify for the bonus payment which included 23 objectives for hospitals and 25 for physicians. But the original rule was quickly revised as HHS received many comments regarding HITECH’s impracticality. In the final regulation, the original elements were divided into two groups consisting of mandatory core objectives as a starting point for meaningful use of electronic health record, and selective list of options from which participants can select in the first 2 years. HHS published the HITECH’s meaningful use objectives on January 1, 1010 and hopes to improve the program rules in subsequent phases of the program by having Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to reach for public and professional feedback. As I mentioned, electronic health record processing and storage is already here whether we want it or not but the smartest health care providers can take advantage of this new program to fund their efforts for converting non-electronic information into digital format and continue processing patient information electronically. The main purpose of this government funded program is to improve patient health care through the effective use of information technology and as such the security of the health information systems becomes even more important as providers increasingly rely on their computers instead of piling up patient folders in their locked file cabinets. |