Meaningful Use of Information

The health care debate related town halls have given the media enough sensationalism for all of us to be exposed to it on a daily basis. But try and actually find clear information on what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 covers and you will find yourself frustrated and annoyed with the lack of clarity around the topic.

So as usual I abandoned the government sites and started reading posts made by experts, vendors and people like you and me; each one trying to either understand the Act or extract one piece of information that makes a business case for a product or service. I started scanning for the term information technology and came across the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which is part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Through this Act the government has allocated $20 billion to health care information technology. It’s intended to achieve widespread adoption of health care IT systems and to enable electronic exchange of information to create a seamless, paperless exchange of information between health care providers, patients and the government. A portion of this $20 billion is allocated to providing incentives to physicians ranging from $40,000 - $65,000 if they can display meaningful use of health care technology systems. There is also a mention of saving the government $10 billion through improved quality of care, reduction of medical errors and duplicative care.

But wait…there is a catch! The twist to this allocation is that health care providers have to demonstrate “meaningful use” of certified electronic health record technologies (EHR). My first reaction was oh no…..here we go again, the health care IT industry will have to reinvent itself as EHR technologies.

“Meaningful use” is defined in the legislation as:

• Using certified EHR technology that includes electronic prescribing. The certification would be conducted by the National Institute of Technology (NIST)
• Using EHR technology that allows electronic exchange of health information
• Eligible professionals must submit information on clinical quality measures and other measures selected by the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

There doesn’t seem to be much clarity around specifics of reporting meaningful use but health care providers are anticipating that the Department of Health and Human Services will provide specifics and clarity about what they will need to do to demonstrate meaningful use. Most providers will have one year – 2010 – to finish EHR implementation and put the infrastructure, applications and training in place to be eligible to receive as much of the incentive money as possible.

There are also some stringent requirements around security. For example, records cannot be sold, the penalties for violations have been increased, data must be encrypted and providers must keep an audit trail of whom they have shared information with.

So, what does this mean for information providers? There are numerous packages in the market that offer simple medical book keeping for small offices, there is off the shelf software for filing electronic claims, and then there are institutional health care administration packages for hospitals and hospital systems.

The “meaningful use” clause will require vendors to create a complete package or solution for health care providers. This includes networking capabilities for doctors, a patient portal where a patient can access their medical records electronically, and a feedback loop where patients have an opportunity to rate their physicians. The intent is to give incentives to providers who think of their practice as outcome driven rather than service oriented.

You can find the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:8:./temp/~c111rCLY0v:e181205: