History and Goals
Background
On February 17, 2009, the President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Title XIII of Division A and Title IV of Division B of ARRA, together cited as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), include provisions to promote meaningful use of health information technology to improve the quality and value of American health care. The HITECH Act also established the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the principal federal entity responsible for coordinating the effort to implement a nationwide health information technology (health IT) infrastructure that allows for the use and exchange of electronic health information in electronic format.
The HITECH Act (Title IV in Division B of ARRA) authorizes incentive payments for eligible Medicare and Medicaid providers’ meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology. In 2015, providers are expected to have adopted and be actively utilizing an EHR in compliance with the “meaningful use” definition or they will be subject to financial penalties under Medicare (per Sections 4101(b) and 4102(b) of ARRA). The detailed criteria to qualify for meaningful use incentive payments will be established by the Secretary of HHS (hereafter referred to as the Secretary) through the formal notice-and-comment rulemaking process. For access to the most current publicly available information about meaningful use, please visit the Meaningful Use section of the ONC programmatic website at: http://healthit.hhs.gov/meaningfuluse.
Milestones
Assist the NIHB American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) National Regional Extension Center (REC) with completion of the work activities associated with the AI/AN National REC Operations Plan’s as follows:
a) Milestone #1—Use best efforts to facilitate the execution of Provider Agreements for up to 2,500 Providers in the Indian Health System. This milestone includes all work associated with provider agreement solicitation (I/T/U providers), collection, tracking and reporting as necessary to secure provider agreements across Indian Country.
b) Milestones #2—Use best efforts to facilitate achievement and documentation of “go live” status of certified EHR Implementation for up to 1,500 Providers in the Indian Health System.
c) Milestones #3 --Verification of Meaningful Use of EHRs as determined by ONC for up to 1,000 Providers in the Indian Health System.
