Hitech Act Essays (Examples)

HITECH Act and Meaningful Use
The American healthcare system is subject to undergo unprecedented reforms resulting from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These changes have generated opportunities for firms across the healthcare landscape. Healthcare Information Technology (HITECH) is a crucial piece to various government reforms. As such, programs sponsored by the government have formulated enormous incentives to adopt information technology solutions. This has spurred much greater tailwinds in the healthcare industry. With the massive implementation of electronic medical records (EM), vast amounts of data can be gathered, stored, and used for improved decision-making.

The HITECH Act and Meaningful Use mandates help to drive and equalize change across all health care settings

The Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was endorsed into law on February 19, 2009 as a major aspect of the American ecovery and einvestment Act of 2009. The HITECH Act gives financial motivations for…

If a breach occurs a healthcare organization would have to send out first-class letters to any patients who might have been affected by the breach. Electronic mail can be used if the individual agrees to receive electronic notice and such agreement has not been withdrawn. If at least ten of the first-class letters come back for a bad address, the hospital must then post a notice of the breach on its home page and offer a toll-free breach information number for 90 days (Anderson, 2010).
To receive the financial incentives, eligible professionals and hospitals must achieve meaningful use of an electronic health record (EH). In December 2009 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an advanced copy of a notice of proposed rulemaking defining the requirements for meaningful use, the measures and the details of how eligible providers and hospitals will be paid the incentive dollars. The requirements…

HITECH Act
What organizations should do to ensure that the correct system is selected

Healthcare institutions across America have increased their efforts of implementing electronic medical records in order to conform to the requirements of the HITECH Act. The implementation process of electronic medical records begins with the selection of the correct system and its appropriateness for those using it. This process has proven to be overwhelming for new users because most of them do not know where to begin (Frances & Glaser, 2009). In addition, the selection of a poor system comes with implications that might become hard for an organization to get itself out of it. Obtaining the appropriate product is worthwhile because it is meant for a long-term relationship. Healthcare organizations must avoid and limit the possibilities of breaking the law besides tackling the costs and challenges of implementing electronic medical records, (Lang, 2010). The HITECH institute…

Policy Communication: HITECH ACT
Health policy communication: HITECH Act

Policy description

Part of the 2009 U.S. ecovery and einvestment Act (AA) are the provisions of HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health), a major overhaul of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Under HITECH, monetary incentives are delivered to healthcare providers and schemes, for employing electronic health records (EHs); the target is to ensure EH implementation in every single U.S. health facility by the year 2014. Further, HITECH adds stricter privacy rules, which include overseeing business partners for healthcare plans, clearinghouses and providers, notification prerequisites and further penalties for noncompliance. The requirements take effect on different dates, further complicating the process of compliance (HITECH, 2009).

HITECH laid down civil financial penalties, criminal penalties, and mandatory federal reporting requirements for security breach that caused patient privacy loss. Additionally, it offered financial support to compliance audits. The…

HITECH Legislation
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is something that gives the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) with the power to create programs that will improve health care quality, security, and competence through the advertising of health Information Technology, which comprises of electronic health records and secure and private electronic health information exchange. However, under HITECH, qualified health care specialists and hospitals are able to qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments when they accept certified EH technology and utilize it to attain quantified purposes (Brokel, 2010). With that said, this paper will discuss the impact of the meaningful use criteria of the HITECH legislation on the adoption of health information technology.

Positive and Negative Impact at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital

The HITECH Legislation had a positive and negative impact on the researcher's organization which is Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. One of…

Lost medical records are process errors that can cause significant medical issues affecting patient privacy, care and safety. Furthermore, Federal laws mandate the secure creation, retention and use of medical records to ensure the highest quality of care, security and privacy for patients. Consequently, health care providers, often under severe budgetary limitations, struggle to comply with these legal, medical and ethical mandates. Research appears to show that medical records issues, including but not limited to lost medical records, can best be handled through exclusively electronic medical records, provided certain requirements are met.
According to the Bureau of Primary Health Care, lost medical records constitute one of the common "process errors" that could cause medical issues such as incorrect diagnosis, delay in diagnosis and delay in treatment (BPHC Task Force on Patient Safety, January 2001, p. 19). Furthermore, using studies from Colorado, Utah and New York, the report estimates that 44,000…

Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was enacted as part of the 2009 bailout. The focus of the act is initiating "incentives related to health care information technology…and specific incentives designed to accelerate the adoption of electronic health record systems among providers (No author, 2013).
There has been a longstanding push to implement electronic health records in the U.S. health care system, for a variety of reasons. The Obama Administration has placed special emphasis on EHR, not only with HITECH but also in the Affordable Care Act as well. Arlotto (2010) outlines seven strategies for improving HITECH readiness in health care organizations. These are to invest in transformational infrastructure; build clinical information expertise; develop a business intelligence strategy; invest in physician business services infrastructure; explore a medical trading area health information exchange; and develop an e-strategy for engaging patients.

These tactics are designed to help health…

Electronic Health Information
Successful Implementation of Electronic Health Information Technology

Over the last several years, the federal government has been encouraging health care organizations to embrace the adoption of electronic information technology. This is taking place through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). At the heart of these provisions, is to provide a variety of organizations with the resources they need to update medical records and other data. This is designed to make health care facilities more responsive to stakeholders through utilizing the most state of the art technology. ("The HITECH Act," 2013)

However, the upfront costs of implementing these systems are a major factor impacting the kinds of investments which is taking place. This requires ensuring that a correct system is selected. In order to address the long-term needs of the organization. At the same time, there must be an emphasis on who should…

Triple Constraints
Health care informatics and how that field interacts and is affected by triple constraints is the subject of this brief report. Further complicating this paradigm is thre passage and enforcement of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Specifically, the meaningful use objectives that are mandated by that act have simply added more hoops for informatics project personnel to jump through. While the HITECH act and the general topic of triple constraints has made the proverbial playing field more treacherous, it is possible to navigate the project landmine that exist and the requirements posed are not without merit and purpose in the grand scheme of things.

Questions Answered

Since the HITECH Act has been the bigger and more recent development relative to triple constraints, that will be covered first. There are four initial definitions and parameters for meaningful use that are required and five…

, 2005). In addition, the workload on clinicians is often increased past the point of reasonable because it is too intrusive and time consuming to document patient encounters during clinic time (Grabenbauer, Skinner, and Windle, 2011). The amount of information that can accumulate in a patient's record from multiple sources can be daunting and lead to information overload. CDS alerts can be so common that clinicians begin to ignore them. The negative impact that EH systems can have on clinician communications is also troubling, because in-person observations by nurses can provide invaluable insights into the treatment needs of a patients that cannot be communicated effectively electronically. Systems have been observed to be slow during peak use periods and in some cases crash (Fernandopulle and Neil, 2010). Vendor support during such crises may be slow or absent, which can lead to seeing and treating patients 'blind.'
Many of the EH-associated complaints…

Evolution of Health Care Information Systems Physician's Office Operation
Filling in the hole of health care information technology will endorse safe, capable, patient-centered, and patient care that is fruitful in a timely way. In this essay, the theme is to look into two modern health

care organizations and then compare and contrast many characteristics that will involve the kind of evidence systems are using at the moment, investigate the transmission of information 20 years ago and how the substitute of data today. Furthermore, this essay will cover two major events and technology developments that have inclined present Health Care Informational Services practices.

Compare and Contrast Doctor's Workplace Operation

These day's doctor's office operation is familiarizing to the health care reform that was sanctioned in 2010 by the Obama organization. During sometime in October of 2013, the exchanges in health insurance was available on the market for customers on order to…

Healthcare: Clinical Integration
Item Page

What is clinical integration

History of clinical integration

Goals of clinical integration

Importance of clinical integration

Health reform

New payment models

IT advancement

Barriers to clinical integration

Legal barriers

Lack of practitioner alignment

Lack of interoperability

How to achieve success in clinical integration

Incentive alignment

Knowledge alignment

Behavioral alignment

The future of health care systems

Physician acquisitions vs. clinical integration

HIEs -- solution to clinical integration?

Policy makers are beginning to appreciate the fact that only systemic change can effectively change, for the better, the manner of health care delivery in the U.S.; and that anything less would only alter the system's edges - with little or no substantial effect on cost-control, innovation-promotion, effectiveness of reward incentive schemes, coordination and coverage (AHA, 2010). Clinical integration has been found to be crucial to the change needed for the achievement of the aforementioned goals (AHA, 2010). Despite…

Controlling Benefit Costs
One of the most serious dilemmas facing organizations today is how to maximize profits in an extremely competitive global environment. Of course, organizations need employees, and there is a cycle that has been growing over the past three decades or so in which employees and other stakeholders are expecting greater benefit packages in order to stay with their employer. The reality of 21st century organizational environments is so competitive for some positions that employers are faced with the issue of having to increase benefits or lose top employees. Governmental regulations are now encroaching into this paradigm as well, and employee costs are now almost always one of the top two expenses for the organization. For most employers, managing these costs has a direct relationship to profitability, the ability to remain competitive in the marketplace and even new business development. However, over the last few years these benefit…

Breach Notification
The confidentiality of medical and personal information of every patients or other individual is a serious issue in the health sector. However, governments such the United States and European Union have put into operation data breach notification rules that cover the health care fraternity. Therefore, breach notification can be defined as rules and regulation which protects or control the unlawful access to data of an individual (Jim Tiller, 2011).

Mostly data breach normally occurs when there is a loss or theft of or access to unauthorized information with sensitive private information which might result to comprise of confidentiality or integrity of the data. Therefore, the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) enacted laws to regulate the breach of personal data of patients. (Gina Stevens, 2012). For example, in the United States, "HITECH Act, Pub L. 111-5 Title XIII," was the first federal health breach notification law…

Workarounds in Healthcare Facilities
Workarounds refer to the alternative methods "of accomplishing an activity when the usual system / process is not working well" (Pennsylvania Patient Safety Advisory, 2013). In as much as workarounds may temporarily solve existing problems, they also indicate inefficiencies and deficiencies in the current system. Workarounds may at times be effective and more convenient, compared to the system in existence, but a regular use of the same could endanger both the safety of patients and the facility's reputation. A workaround can, therefore, be termed as an at-risk behavior that does not yield concrete long-term solutions to existing problems. Therefore, "workarounds perceived as necessary by the user for patient care, efficiency or safety, may be beneficial, neutral, or dangerous for patients' safety" (Koppel, Wetterneck, Telles & Karsh, 2008, p. 1).

A description of Workarounds in a Selected Facility

Workarounds can take a variety of forms. For instance,…

Coffee egional Medical Center, Inc. CMC") is a non-profit, 88-bed hospital located in Douglas, Georgia. Since 1953, CMC has served the healthcare needs of the community as the sole hospital-provider in Douglas, Georgia and surrounding Coffee County. CMC's mission is to provide the highest-quality healthcare, in a safe and caring environment, for both patients and families (Coffee egional Medical Center, N.d.).
CMC is an acute care hospital for adults and children in southern Georgia whose primary and secondary markets extend from Coffee to Jeff Davis and Bacon counties to Ben Hill and Atkinson counties.

Technological

Healthcare is miles behind the curve when it comes to technological innovation, an industry that historically has not been easy to innovate for. There are two key trends that have changed the game just in the last few months, explains Zoe Barry, CEO and Founder of Zappx, "opening up what could be a landgrab for…

Personal Academic and Professional Objectives
From an academic perspective, a certificate in Electronic Health Record System Consultant will in basic terms first and foremost equip me with the necessary skills required for the maintenance, collection as well as analysis of healthcare data relied upon by healthcare providers in the delivery of services to patients. If I successfully complete the training, I am convinced that I will have developed professional skills necessary for the effective management of all medical information as well as records of patients.

Further, by undertaking a certificate in Electronic Health Record System Consultant, I seek to acquire hands-on skills not only in regard to coding diagnoses but also in the relevant reimbursement procedures. I am convinced that the certification in this case will prepare me to offer my services in a wide variety of settings including but not limited to government agencies, electronic health record system software…

ecurity Management Plan
John's Hospital

Privacy of client information is an assurance that every patient wants and this assurance is what the hospital can build patient confidence on. The lack of it therefore may have consequences such as loss of confidence in the hospital, loss of clientele and the emergence of a poor reputation. This paper looks at the t. John's Hospital which has experienced the leakage of confidential information a problem that needs to be addressed. It highlights the steps the hospital must take in its management plan. In the first step, hospital must identify how widespread the problem is and where exactly there are weaknesses in the system. econdly, the hospital's staff must receive adequate training in methods to deal with confidential information especially its destruction. A culture must be developed to deal with this information discreetly. In this same breadth breach must be understood by all staff…

Charles, K., Coustasse, A., & Willis, K. (2014). Does CPOE Increase Patient Safety by Reducing Medical Errors? Global Education Journal, 2014(1), 1-14.
The purpose of the research project was to determine if adoption of a CPOE system would be an effective elucidation to the problem of medical errors as well as determine what caused the medical errors.

The results pointed to reduction in adverse drug events and medical errors significantly using CPOE and demonstrate through review that CPOE provides a higher accuracy through ease of electronic use of data.

Evidence: By using information taken from previous research articles and studies, the authors determined CPOE can minimize medical errors and can be beneficial especially due to the financial incentives brought on by the HITECH Act of 2009.

Relation: This source supports other sources and evidence because it shows how beneficial CPOE is to patient care through reduction of medical errors.

Currency:…

Security in Healthcare
The recent advances in technology -- databases that store personal medical records and information -- are bringing tools to patients, doctors and other healthcare professionals that were simply not available just a few years ago. There is hope that eventually, a doctor in Hawaii that is treating a medical emergency for a tourist from Florida, will be able to access the digitally kept medical and healthcare records for that injured tourist. In other words, there will likely be in the foreseeable future a national database -- that perhaps links state databases with each other the way the FBI and local law enforcement agencies are linked -- that will be of enormous benefit to citizens and their healthcare providers.

But before that nationally linked database can become a reality, there are a number of potential problems that need to be ironed out. For example, legislation needs to be…

Ethical Issues Surrounding the Adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) by Health Care Organizations and Meaningful Use
The objective of this work in writing is to examine why health care organizations are hesitant to adopt electronic health records (HER) in light of the potential of HER to improve quality, increase access, and reduce costs. This issue will be examined from a legal, financial, and ethical standpoint and in relation to 'meaningful use'.

The use of information technology in the health care field shows a great deal of potential toward improving quality, efficiency, and safety in medical care. (DeRoches, Campbell, and Rao, 2008, paraphrased; Frisse & Holmes, 2007, paraphrased; and Walker, et al., 2005, paraphrased) The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 is reflective of the unprecedented interest of the Federal government in the area of bringing about increases in the use of IT in health care for system…

ABC/123 Version X
Definition and Purpose Explain each term in your own words using complete sentences.

Health Care Example Identify an example of each term and discuss how it is used in a health care setting.

References Provide two APA formatted references to support your claims for each term.

Clinical decision support ?

Clinical decision support or CDS is a way of organizing and utilizing information and patient-specific knowledge, streamlined for utility and employed under the right circumstances, to improve the health care that is provided and to improve the health of the patient.

CDS in a health care setting can include a variety of things, such as technology to provide reminders or alerts for patients or providers, or also data reports, and relevant information

Garg, AX, Adhikhari, NKJ, et al. (2005) Effects of computerized clinical decision support systems on practitioner performance and patient outcomes: A systematic review. Journal of…

Cloud Security and Privacy
Cloud computing's exponential growth is fueling a corresponding need for greater compliance, governance and regulations to ensure data and knowledge are secured and accessed for intended use. A regulation by definition is a rule or law, and has inherent within its definition support for compliance and enforcement (Halpert, 2011). egulations differ from legal frameworks or standards in that the former is broadly protective and more focused on protecting shareholder value, ensuring corporate responsibility and also defining disincentives for recklessness or wrongdoing (Halpert, 2011). The purpose of this analysis is to analyze the top five security regulations for business and government.

Analysis of the Top Five Security egulations for Businesses and Government

The top five security regulations provide laws governing the use of digital assets including cloud computing platforms and applications, with the specific purpose of ensuring personal and corporate data, information and knowledge are protected.

The…

Competitiveness of Sustenance Lithographic Printing Industry with the Digital Printing Industry: A Case Study of the Lithographic Printing Industry in Nigeria
Major Constraints Affecting the Lithographic Printing Industry

The Effect of the Total Quality Management System on Lithographic

Industry and Compliance with a Changing World

Comparison of Lithographic Printing and Digital Printing to Develop

Avenues to Increase the Sale of Lithography

Stakeholder Opinions of the Proficiency of the Lithographic Printing

Industry

Although facing obsolescence from innovations in digital printing technologies, the lithographic industry is faced with several constraints to its competitiveness that form the focus of this study. The overarching aim of this study is to investigate and explore the future of the lithographic printing industry and develop ways on how lithographic printing can be sustained in the changing world of emerging technologies in the printing industry today. In support of this main aim, the study's objectives were to: provide…

From personal experience it is clear that including the healthcare professionals' feedback in each of the five phases of the SDLC model leads to systems that better align to patient's needs and streamline information delivery and knowledge management. Personal experiences have provided a unique glimpse of how powerful this dynamics is when done well with full inclusion of stakeholders. In the majority of instances however stakeholders are often ignored or only provided what the healthcare systems can deliver with little if any customization or configuration (Buntin, Burke, oaglin, Blumenthal, 2011). This is because customization and configuration is expensive and time-consulting to complete and is one of the leading causes of nurses being ignored during each phase of the SDLC model (Buntin, Burke, oaglin, Blumenthal, 2011). When this occurs a system fails to align to an organization and a significant amount of time and money are wasted.
In the first phase…