HITECH Act and Meaningful Use

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act

The HITECH Act was created to drive Healthcare Organizations to move from Paper Based Medical Records to Electronic and Electronically Portable Based Medical Records.

It utilizes a Carrot and Stick Approach. Meaning that there are Incentives for Healthcare in the form of monetary reimbursement for achieving 20 our of 25 “Meaningful Use” Objectives. Beginning in 2015, if these objectives are not reached then penalties in the form of decreased Medicare and Medicaid payments will be assessed.

The HITECH Act also provides Actual Enforcement of HIPAA, by giving the States Attorney Generals the right to prosecute Security and Privacy Violations. These Penalties come in the form of Monetary Penalties up to $1.5 M per incident, as an incident would be defined as an actual medical record. It also mandates that transparency by making a breach public. The following Federal Statues apply:

45CFR Part 179 Meaningful Use

45 CFR Part 160 HIPAA Enforcement

45 CFR Part 164.308 Risk Analysis Guidance

Achieving Meaningful Use

To meet Meaningful Use a Healthcare Organization must meet a total of 15 Required Objective and 5 out of 10 Menu based Objectives. Here are some example objectives.

Meaningful Use Objectives Total of 25 Must Achieve at least 20 (Not all Listed)

Electronic Prescriptions
Implement drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks
Up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses
Active medication allergy list
Report ambulatory quality measures, Implement one clinical decision support rule
Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information upon request
Implement one clinical decision support rule
Record and chart changes in vital signs
Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information upon request
Provide clinical summaries to patients for each office visit
Capability to exchange key clinical information
Record and chart changes in vital signs