Health Information Technology for
Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. The law includes the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or the "HITECH Act," which established programs under Medicare and Medicaid to provide incentive payments for the "meaningful use" of certified electronic health records (EHR) technology.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has a role in three areas of the HITECH Act:

• Implementation of the EHR incentive programs, including defining meaningful use of certified EHR technology
• Establishment of standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for EHR technology
• Privacy and Security protections under the HITECH Act

Implementation of the EHR Incentive Programs

Under the HITECH Act, the Medicare EHR incentive programs provide incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) that are meaningful users of certified EHRs. Incentive payments would be made to qualifying Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations for the meaningful use of certified EHR technology by their affiliated eligible professionals. The Medicaid EHR incentive program provides incentive payments to eligible professionals and hospitals for efforts to adopt, implement or upgrade certified EHR technology or for meaningful use in the first year and for meaningful use for up to another five years.

CMS administers the EHR incentive programs under Medicare and Medicaid. CMS prepared a proposed rule on the EHR incentive programs and accepted public comments for 60 days.   The proposed rule includes the definition of meaningful use and other requirements for qualifying for incentive payments. CMS worked closely with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in developing the proposed rule. The comment period for the proposed rule closed on March 15, 2010. CMS is working to finalize and release the rule in late spring.  A copy of the proposed rule and related documents is accessible below in the Downloads section.

Establishment of EHR Technology Standards and Certification Requirements

Under the HITECH Act, the Secretary is responsible for adopting standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for health information technology. ONC published an interim final rule on those topics and also has published a proposed rule on the processes the National Coordinator would take to authorize organizations to perform the certification of health information technology. This proposed rule is currently open for public comment. More information about the ONC rules is available in the section "Health IT Standards and Certification" in the Related Links Outside CMS section below

Protecting Privacy and Security of Health Information

Patient privacy and security is an important consideration in implementing the EHR incentive programs. The HHS Office for Civil Rights, in consultation with CMS and ONC, is working to implement the Recovery Act provisions. More information on privacy and security related to the Health IT is available in the section "Health IT/Privacy and Security" and "HHS Office for Civil Rights" in the Related Links Outside CMS section below.

(http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Recovery/11_HealthIT.asp)