Topic: Governance, Compliance, Health PolicyAlthough health IT governance is a relatively "new" concept, the demands for this expertise are vast and the needs are immediate. Healthcare reform is one example. How is health IT governance being used to ensure that the requirements of the Affordable Health Care Act are being met, implemented, monitored, and maintained?

The affordable care act was one of the most meaning pieces of legislation during the Obama administration. Here, the act looked to take the ambitious task of providing universal healthcare coverage to all Americans. Through this legislation, the administration aimed to reduce the proportion of the uninsured population while also looking to lower overall healthcare costs. The act attempted to accomplish this task through shared responsibility between government, employers, and employees. This would ultimately result in higher quality and much more affordable health insurance coverage. It was also designed to help reduce wasteful spending while also attempting the make the overall healthcare system much accountable for patient outcomes. Finally, the act looked to emphasize much more of a preventative aspects of healthcare treatment as oppose to the reactionary style of prior healthcare iterations.

To ensure that the requirement of the Affordable Health Care Act is being met, implemented, monitored, and maintained, the government has invested heavily in technological oversight. One such method is related to the National Quality Strategy; whose purpose is to generate multi-payer quality and efficiency measures to promote value purchasing. It is also designed to facilitate the exchange of information between public and provide insures and serves as a verification that the ACA is being implemented properly. The act also established, the Institute for Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research. This agency is also designed to oversee that the law is being implemented and followed by both state and local participants. In addition, the agency uses the information that is reported to it by states to develop new methods in which to deliver better healthcare to society. Both agencies are designed to collect information for all states in order to improve the information flow and arrive at better solutions to lower the overall cost of healthcare (Rosenbaum, 2011).

References:

1. Rosenbaum S. (2011). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: implications for public health policy and practice. Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974), 126(1), 130135. https://doi.org/10.1177/003335491112600118