Advion Advocacy - Health Care Reform

In March 2010, Congress passed and the President signed into law the Affordable Care Act. Officially known as the American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA Public Law 111-5) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), the "Stimulus Law" was signed on February 17, 2009 by President Obama and provides $19.2 billion in health IT spending.

• Advion Summary of Key Health Care Reform Provisions
   
  • Medicare Payment Issues
  • Medicare Program Reforms
  • Nursing Homes and Facilities
  • Bundled Payments
  • Durable Medical Equipment
  • Fraud, Waste and Abuse
  • Medical Malpractice

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) adds a number of funding opportunities to advance health information technology. Specifically, incentives for meaningful use of certified health information technology. The provisions of the HITECH Act are specifically designed to work together to provide the necessary assistance and technical support to providers, enable coordination and alignment within and among states, establish connectivity to the public health community in case of emergencies, and assure the workforce is properly trained and equipped to be meaningful users of EHRs.

Meaningful Use

• More on Meaningful Use and Electronic Health Records
• EHR Incentive Program

HITECH Programs

• Beacon Community Program: A grant program for communities to build and strengthen their health information technology (health IT) infrastructure and exchange capabilities. These communities will demonstrate the vision of a future where hospitals, clinicians, and patients are meaningful users of health IT, and together the community achieves measurable improvements in health care quality, safety, efficiency, and population health.

• State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program: A grant program to support States or State Designated Entities (SDEs) in establishing health information exchange (HIE) capability among healthcare providers and hospitals in their jurisdictions.

• Health Information Exchange Challenge Grant Program: A grant program to encourage breakthrough innovations for health information exchange that can be leveraged widely to support nationwide health information exchange and interoperability.

• Health Information Technology Extension Program: A grant program to establish Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers to offer technical assistance, guidance and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
• Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program: A grant program to fund research focused on achieving breakthrough advances to address well-documented problems that have impeded adoption: 1) Security of Health Information Technology; 2) Patient-Centered Cognitive Support; 3) Healthcare Application and Network Platform Architectures; and, 4) Secondary Use of EHR Data.
• Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals Program: A grant program that seeks to rapidly create health IT education and training programs at Community Colleges or expand existing programs.  Community Colleges funded under this initiative will establish intensive, non-degree training programs that can be completed in six months or less. This is one component of the Health IT Workforce Program.
• Curriculum Development Centers Program: A grant program to provide $10 million in grants to institutions of higher education (or consortia thereof) to support health information technology (health IT) curriculum development. This is one component of the Health IT Workforce Program.
• Program of Assistance for University-Based Training: A grant program to rapidly increase the availability of individuals qualified to serve in specific health information technology professional roles requiring university-level training. This is one component of the Health IT Workforce Program.
• Competency Examination for Individuals Completing Non-Degree Training Program: A grant program to provide $6 million in grants to an institution of higher education (or consortia thereof) to support the development and initial administration of a set of health IT competency examinations. This is one component of the Health IT Workforce Program.