The Stimulus Bill

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

ARRA

The section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA, stimulus bill that applies to Health Information Technology is called the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, the HITECH Act. It provides money for the adoption and “meaningful use” of a “certified” Electronic Health Record. The money you can receive for implementing this is best explained in the table below:

A number of terms and conditions still need to be defined. How you report that you are using the EHR in a meaningful way will be determined by the Secretary. The reporting method has not yet been announced, but many anticipate that reporting will be similar to PQRI reporting. It is yet to be determined if the payments will be in a lump sum per year or installments. Up to $63,750 is available from Medicaid. The bill is listed at

http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr1ENR/pdf/BILLS-11hr1ENR.pdf

Regarding a “certified” HER, the ARRA bill does not specifically say what body is to provide certification. At this point in time, the only certifying body is the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, CCHIT, although there could be one or more other certifying organizations in the future. CCHIT only began accepting applications for 2011-2012 ARRA certifications starting in October, 2009. The 2011-2012 ARRA certifications is what the government will require as certification for the stimulus money.

According to the CCHIT web site, there are two possible certification programs for ambulatory EHRs that will meet the ARRA requirements. They are the Comprehensive or a more limited Preliminary ARRA certification.

“CCHIT Certified® 2011 products are inspected against comprehensive functionality, interoperability, and privacy and security criteria using the Commission’s published methods and have been found in full compliance. These also meet or exceed applicable”