What is Meaningful Use?

Meaningful use is a hot topic these days. Do you know what meaningful use means for the electronic health record (EHR)? Please note that EHR (electronic health record) and EMR (electronic medical record) are used interchangebly. On February 13 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to stimulate the economy. In four days, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act became a http://viagraonline-forsex.com/ law. The Recovery Act had three immediate goals:

• Create new jobs and save existing ones
• Spur economic activity and invest in long-term growth
• Foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in government spending

The funds were worth $787 billion and the allocation for the healthcare sector were as follows:

• $86.6 billion for Medicaid
• $24.7 billion to provide a 65% subsidy of health care insurance premiums for the unemployed under the COBRA program
• $19 billion for Health Information Technology (HIT)
• $10 billion for health research and construction of National Institute of Health facilities
• $1.3 billion for medical care for military service members and their families
• $1 billion for prevention and wellness
• $1 billion for the Veterans Health Administration
• $2 billion for community health centers
• $1.1 billion to research the effectiveness of certain healthcare treatments
• $500 million to train healthcare personnel
• $500 million for healthcare services on Indian reservations

A part of the ARRA is the Health Information Technology for viagra price fall Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The HITECH act was created to stimulate the adoption of electronic health records and technology in the United States. The HITECH act stated that beginning in 2011 healthcare providers will be rewarded financially for demonstrating meaningful use in the electronic health record and continue until 2015. After 2015, providers will be penalized if they fail to demonstrate the use of the EHR. It has been researched and documented that health information technology help save lives and lower costs. The goals of the cheap generic viagra HITECH act:

1. Government requirement to develop standards in 2010 that allow for the nationwide electronic exchange and use of health information to improve quality and coordination of care
2. Investing $20 billion in health information infrastructure, Medicare and Medicaid incentives to encourage doctors and hospitals to use HIT to electronically exchange patients’ cialis canada online pharmacy health information
3. Save $10 billion in government funding; generate additional savings in the health care sector through improvements of quality of care and care coordination, and reduce medical errors and duplicative care
4. Strengthen Federal privacy and security law to protect identifiable health information from misuse as the health care sector increases use of healthcare information technology

As a result of this legislation, it is estimated that approximately 90% of physicians and hospitals will be using electronic health records within the next decade. In addition, this legislation provides immediate funding: clinical education and the inclusion of health information technology and State grants to promote health information technology. There are also more financial incentives through Medicare and Medicaid programs to encourage physicians and hospitals to adopt and use certified electronic health records. The financial incentive is $40,000 to $65,000 50mg of viagra for physicans who demonstrate they are “meaningfully using” health information technology through quality measure reports. Hospitals are also eligible for several million dollars in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to use health information technology in a meaningful way through the use of quality measure reports. What is Meaningful Use? The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 specified three components of

Meaningful Use. These components are:

1. The use of a certified EHR in a meaningful way such as eprescribing
2. The use of certified EHR technology for electronic exchange of health information to improve quality health care
3. The use of certified EHR technology to submit quality measures

What does this all mean? For patients, it means quality and safe care and that is what healthcare is all about. {image: credit}