Healthcare Information Technology Health Information

Healthcare Information Technology

Health Information Technology (Health IT)

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) makes special provisions for information technology expansion in the healthcare sector. The Act seeks to invest $19 billion in Medicare and Medicaid Health IT initiatives over a period of five years.

Some of the key features of the ARRA in connection with Healthcare information technology (HIT) are as follows:

It plans to establish the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) with specific aim to make healthcare IT infrastructure interoperable.

A policy has been drafted to establish IT standards in healthcare in consultation with the primary stakeholders. Financial incentives will also be offered through Medicaid and Medicare funds in order to promote the use of electronic health records and to make E.H.R more acceptable and more widely used in healthcare sector. It also seeks to make E.H.R use more common by offering variety of monetary incentives to physicians and medical facilities that adopt this system.

But use of HIT and E.H.R also means more ready access to medical information of patients and hence some privacy clauses have also been included. HIPAA laws seek to protect patient information and hence physicians are now under an obligation to disclose if they have ever used patient's information if the patient demands to know. If healthcare information has been disclosed without consent of the patient, it is important to treat this as a breach of confidentiality contract and patient must be informed. Compliance with privacy clauses of AARA is very important because non-compliance can result in serious legal problems for physicians and hospitals. If HIPAA laws are not adhered too, the Act makes provision for legal action where violating party can face serious financial penalties.