Electronic Health Records and meaningful use under the Affordable Care Act
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Public Health Reform: The Affordable Health Care Act
The objective of this study is to review a portion of the Affordable Care Act and present the strengths and weaknesses of the plan as well as make suggestions for plan improvement. For this purpose, this study will review the implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHS) and the rules of meaningful use. The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act, enacted in March 2010 are focused on providing Americans with "broader access to health insurance coverage and affordable, high-quality health care." (infocus, 2011, p.1)
Electronic Health Records Certification and Meaningful Use
It is reported that the Standards and Certification Criteria Final Rule " represents the first step in an incremental approach to adopting standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria to enhance the interoperability, functionality, utility, and security of health it and to support its meaningful use. The certification criteria adopted in this initial set establish the required capabilities and related standards and implementation specifications that certified EHR technology will need to include in order to, at a minimum, support the achievement of meaningful use Stage 1 (beginning in 2011) by eligible professionals and eligible hospitals under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs." (Health it.gov, 2013, p.1)
Incentive Payments
Section 401(c) of the HITECH Act is reported to add an incentive for payments to specific Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations for their affiliated EPs who meaningfully use certified HER technology and meet other certain requirements." (Federal Register, 2010) for MA organizations in which services provided by affiliated EPs who are not meaningful users of certified EHR, technology a downward adjustments of payments is stated beginning in 2015. Also required by the Act is a process to be established that ensures that no duplicate payments are made to MA organizations. In addition, hospitals that do not meaningfully use a certified EHR technology will receive a reduction in their annual payment for inpatient hospital services. Critical access hospitals who meaningfully use certified EHR technology will receive reasonable costs for the purchase of a certified EHR technology beginning in fiscal year 2011. It is reported that meaningful use will be addressed on a yearly basis. The Affordable Care Act provides "a ten percent bonus payment on top of the fee schedule payments for select primary care services furnished by a primary care physician in calendar year 2011-2015." (infocus, 2011, p.1) the bonus is provided only if the physician is self-designated in a primary care specialist. (infocus, 2011, p.1)
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- Federal Register (2010) Part II Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 42 CFR Parts 412, 413, 422 et al. Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Electronic Health Record Incentive Program; Final Rule Vol. 75 No. 144. 28 Jul 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-07-28/pdf/2010-17207.pdf ↗
- Standards and Certification Rules (2010) Final Rules and Regulations. HealthIT.gov. Retrieved from: http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/standards-certification-rules ↗
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