Overview
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
Since the enactment of the Breach Notification Rule, Nearly 300 ePHI disclosures have been reported. To date, this rule has impacted in excess of 12 million people.
Why get a HITECH Security Risk Assessment?
The HITECH Act incentivizes a move away from paper health records to Electronic Health Records (EHR). Under the HITECH Act, there are hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars appropriated to incentivize adoption of an EHR system.
The scope increased to include both Security and Privacy protections available under HIPAA. HITECH expands to cover many entities which previously only required a BA or Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
Regulators and patients insist upon more compliance and accountability. This includes accounting for all access to a patient's record set within 30 days.
What is the HITECH Act’s Meaningful Use?
Meaningful Use is the yardstick by which HITECH Act compliance is measured. The measurement is based on the completeness and accuracy of your electronic health records (EHR). This gauges the availability and accessibility of these records to individual patients and authorized health care professionals.
For any Health Care provider wanting to receive the incentives or avoid penalties, the only option is to increase to compliance. To receive the incentive funds available through the provisions of the HITECH Act – you must meet all Meaningful Use provisions by specific dates. See the most recent updates via this link.