Implementing Electronic Health Records by the Medical Community makes Dollar$ and Cent$.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Stimulus Act) contains significant incentives for the medical community to adopt a certified solution for computerizing their patient's medical records. In fact it has become a downright gift to the practicioners to select and implement a qualifying Electronic Health Record (EHR) system as the stimulus payments offered by the act can be enough to pay for the system in its entirety. The relevant portion of the Stimulus Act was named the Health Information Technology for Economic & Clinical Health Act (HITECH).
There are two primary goals of the HITECH Act!
On the heels of a previous mandate to adopt an EHR system, the HITECH act subsidizes it. But not just any electronic medical records will do. In fact some of the practitioners who adopted EMR or Electronic Medical Records systems may find that they are insufficient in some respects to qualify for the subsidy. The reason is the second primary goal of the Act is to implement a system that is interoperable with other EMR systems. This means no more storing of data in discrete and quarantined data silos. The systems must be able to talk to each other and communicate vital patient records with each other.
Three Criteria Required to Qualify for Stimulus Funding
1. Adopt a Certified EHR platform with electronic prescribing features
2. Your EHR must contain Connectivity and Interoperability to other Medical Providers
3. Your system must have the capability to report your utilization of it to the HHS.
How much money can I receive?