Abstract

Meaningful use constitutes a key health information technology project driver as it impacts all players in the health care sector. By 2016, 95% of hospitals has demonstrated meaningful use of HIT through the CMS HER programs. Meaningful use achievement has appreciable effects on extent and long-run health information workflows. HIT acceptance and implementation necessitates substantial state support, robust federal support, and an alliance between state governors, Medicaid officers, and state CIOs (chief information officers) joining hands across and within borders for ensuring state-developed governing regulations and technological infrastructures jointly support the Act’s spirit and effect intra- and inter- state information flow. Incorporation of HIT into clinical practice has led to meaningful improvements when achieved thoughtfully for instance, $27 billion gained from the fulfilling CMS incentive scheme conditions. HIT provides professionals with necessary information that facilitates the delivery of more coordinated and improved care, creating the ideal opportunity to eventually bend the healthcare sector’s cost curve for instance, outpatient departments that use EHR have a new of $142 million in savings.

Introduction

How can one define health information technology’s (HIT’s) “meaningful use”?What is the reason underlying its significance for healthcare providers as well as patients, research scholars, policymakers and taxpayers? What steps should healthcare organizations and doctors take to conform to meaningful use conditions and when? What penalties and incentives are associated with meaningful use conformity? Lastly, how does practitioners’ health information technology system interoperability impact meaningful use achievement ability?

The HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act, enacted under the 2009 ARRA(American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), provided $27 billion to qualified healthcare organizations and practitioners who implemented HIT and, with it, improved patient care delivery using Medicaid and Medicare. The mere implementation of electronic health record systems (EHRs) wasn’t enough (Freedman, 2009). To become eligible for monetary incentives, the Act mandated healthcare organizations and practitioners’ demonstration of efficient certified technology use, engagement in information interchange, and reporting on care quality measures indicated by the HHS (Health and Human Services) Departmental Secretary. The aforementioned “meaningful use” principles are detailed under the Medicaid and Medicare EHR Incentive initiatives under CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid).

More than Meaningful Use

Meaningful use constitutes a key health information technology project driver as it impacts all players... Owing to meaningful use criteria’s extensive scope and complexity, its attainment offers realistic opportunities for the employment of project management techniques. By 2016, 95% of hospitals has demonstrated meaningful use of HIT through the CMS EHR programs. Under guidelines for meaningful use, for instance, physician clinics that implement HIT may be entitled to earn several thousand dollars as governmental incentive (Adler-Milstein & Jha, 2017), thereby creating the need for more HIT projects. Such monetary incentives aim at promoting the institution of nationwide EHR network. Hence, meaningful use makes the need for health IT projects a regulatory prerequisite. By march 2014, 370,000 providers in meaningful use programs had received $22.9 billion in EHR incentive programs. As of June 2015, 75% of physicians in the EHR system and 80% of Priority Primary Care Providers reported having met the meaning use criteria (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2017).
Meaningful use achievement has appreciable effects on extant and long-run health information workflows. Consider, for instance, e-prescribing: HITECH supports meaningful use through the institution of disincentives and incentives for encouraging healthcare organization implementation of specialized software facilitating electronic transmission of prescriptions by physicians to pharmacists instead of handwritten prescriptions, saving $142 billion (Freedman, 2009; Jones et al., 2014). Once again, here, meaningful use influenced by technological advancements makes the need for health IT projects a regulatory prerequisite.

Health IT aids attempts at reshaping the system of documentation, exchange and use of health information, via appropriate funding and infrastructure never before seen by the electronic health domain. HIT is really capable of acting beyond mere talk of what ought to be done; it displays real promise when it comes to establishing and implementing changes in the system (Wager, Lee & Glaser, 2017). Health IT addresses and supports the entire electronic infrastructure needed for safe, secure e-health dataflow. It aims at engaging all stakeholders (hospital systems, physician practices, community health clinics, patients, payers and public health systems), thereby facilitating ongoing public debates and discussions relating to healthcare issues requiring more advanced technology approaches.

Health IT initiatives demonstrate the ability to initiate unexpected partnerships and collaborations, with 85% of stakeholders (Pennic, 2012) joining hands to acquire new skills and knowledge from one another, deploy novel technologies, and map the way to an integrated health community founded on cooperation, communication, access and transparency. HIT acceptance and implementation necessitates substantial state support, robust federal support, and an…