HIT Funding Under ARRA
On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). I will be focusing on the health care aspects of ARRA in my next several blogs.
ARRA provides additional support for the development and adoption of health care information technology (HIT). The largest allocation of HIT funding -- approximately $17 billion -- is for incentive payments through the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement systems to encourage providers and hospitals to implement electronic health record (EHR) systems -- specifically for the "meaningful use of certified EHR technology" by eligible professionals and hospitals.
An eligible professional (professionals eligible for the incentive payments are those who participate in Medicare and who are defined under Sec. 1861[r] of the Social Security Act) will receive incentive payments for the first five years (2011 through 2015) for demonstrating a meaningful use of EHR technology and demonstrated performance during the reporting period for each payment year.
In order to maximize payments under ARRA, eligible professionals must adopt a meaningful use of EHR technology in 2011 or 2012, thereby qualifying for five annual payments ending in 2015 or 2016, respectively (an aggregate maximum payment of $44,000). If an eligible professional does not demonstrate a meaningful use of EHR technology by 2015, he or she will not receive incentive payments and his or her reimbursement payments under Medicare will be reduced as specified in the legislation. Thus, there is strong incentive to move quickly on these matters.