HITECH Act Essay Example

Introduction

The selected health information is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, a healthcare law enacted in the year 2009. The HITECH Act was one of the approaches that the U.S. government endorsed to increase the use of the electronic health records by hospitals, as well as, physicians. The purpose of its enactment was to encourage healthcare institutions in adopting and meaningful utilization of health information technology (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d). There are various reasons as to why the HITECH Act was signed into law. Also, after its adoption and implementation in healthcare institutions, the HITECH Act has had different effects on the management of health information, healthcare institutions, and professionals. Research findings also reveal that the aim of enacting the HITECH Act has not been achieved because of the many challenges that influence the implementation of the EHRs in hospitals. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the HITECH Act as an important topic in health information with a focus on the reasons for its enactment, its effect, and effectiveness of achieving the intended goals.

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The Reasons for Enacting the HITECH Act

There are several reasons for creating the HITECH Act. It was enacted to motivate healthcare professionals in implementing the meaningful use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) by physicians as well as supporting the use of technology in the management of health information in the U.S. (Maxson, Jain, Kendall, Mostashari, & Blumenthal, 2010). The HITECH Act anticipated achieving better exchange of health information stored in electronic devices between and among doctors in hospitals as well as other entities in need of using that data. Through the sharing of information, the use of EHRs would cut down the healthcare costs. Also, the HITECH Act implementation by healthcare professionals and institutions would increase the privacy of health information as more rules were introduced to increase the potential legal liability for failing to comply by setting more stringent rules of enforcement. For instance, the HITECH Act stipulates that health care providers such as physicians were provided with monetary incentives for their ability to demonstrate the meaningful utilization of the EHR. The enforcement of these incentives was provided until the year 2015 after which the HITECH Act required those who failed to meet the expectation of demonstrating the meaningful use of the EHR to pay penalties (Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin, & Blumenthal, 2011).

The Effect of HITECH Act

After its enactment, the HITECH Act has been attributed to the increased adoption of health information technologies in healthcare institutions. In their study, Adler-Milstein, and Jha (2017) found out that the HITECH Act drove high gains in the adoption of the EHR in hospitals. However, the increase could not be compared to the period before the creation of the Act which means that it is uncertain. The eligibility of hospitals in implementing the HITECH Act has been a challenge. Only a few short-term acute care hospitals in the U.S. were eligible to adopt the meaningful use of EHR as required by the HITECH Act. It shows that there are more measures needed in driving the implementation of the HITECH Act to effectively achieve the initial goals set by the Congress. The HITECH Act is a model that has shown effectiveness in driving more healthcare institutions to adopt the use of valuable health information technologies.

Sheikh, Sood, and Bates (2015) did a study in leveraging health information technology to achieve the "triple aim" of healthcare reform including improving patient care, population health as well as reducing the healthcare expenditures. The researchers found out that HITECH Act acted as a catalyst in creating digital infrastructure in healthcare institutions. Further, the healthcare technologies adopted are used in innovative ways for the purpose of improving the quality of care provided to patients and curtailing the costs. However, the implementation of the HITECH Act faced the problems in the poor usability of the EHRs since they could not support the multi-disciplinary care in hospitals. The EHRs posed difficulties in the exchange of health information and this compromised the efforts of delivering the integrated patient-centered care.

Effectiveness in Achieving the Intended Goals

Research shows that the HITECH Act has not been effective in achieving the intended goals and reasons for its enactment in 2009. The HITECH Act intended to encourage the use of health technology to boost efficiency in hospitals, reduce healthcare costs and enhance patient outcomes. According to Rahurkar, Vest, and Menachemi (2015), despite the ability of the EHR in spreading health information exchange, there is little or no evidence that it has had an impact on costs, use, and quality of care. Similar findings have been established on the impact of adopting the EHR as required by the HITECH Act on physicians. Mennemeyer, Menachemi, Rahurkar, and Ford (2016) state that the HITECH Act required the distribution of money to physicians as incentives to encourage them to adopt and meaningful use of the certified electronic health records (EHRs) for improving health outcomes to patients. By adopting the recommended health technology by the HITECH Act, physicians were expected to increase their better performance in healthcare provision. However, the adoption and meaningful use of EHRs by physicians has not been significant as there are no effects on the basic systems used in healthcare institutions. Physicians have been found to mimic the adoption of the EHRs from their peers where the technology used does not respond to the mandate set out by the HITECH Act.

The findings of Mennemeyer, et al. (2016) show that there are minimal innovation effects of physicians' enthusiasm in adopting the EHRs. It shows that the HITECH Act may have had a negative impact on physicians since EHRs have been associated with the lower productivity of physicians. The healthcare professionals claim that EHRs lack the capabilities of sharing data and require the incorporation of other interoperability features such as the application program interfaces.

An earlier study carried out by Ford, Menachemi, Peterson, & Huerta (2009) explains further the findings of Mennemeyer, et al. (2016) why the adoption patterns of EHR were declining even after the passing of HITECH Act in 2009. The trend is evident today since the increase in adoption patterns of the EHR by physicians is at a decreasing rate. Sheikh, et al. (2015) proposed strategies that could be implemented to help in the proper implementation of the HITECH Act concerns successfully and gain the intended benefits. It is important for the government to stimulate the health information technology competition by requiring suppliers to open-up regarding the application of program interfaces. It is also recommended that the law should insist on the development of consumer informatics tools of low-cost. The Congress should also be required to review the earlier law, The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) for the optimization of health information privacy and reuse.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the HITECH Act was enacted in 2009 with the aim of improving the quality of care to patients, reducing costs of healthcare, increasing health information privacy and enhancing the population health. Research shows that the only effect that the HITECH Act has had on healthcare institutions and professionals is the increased use of health information technology. There is little or no evidence of physicians as leaders to support the adoption of technology for better management of health information despite the recommendation and encouragement by the HITECH Act. Also, there is no evidence that there are reduced costs of healthcare, improved quality of patient care and the increased adoption of the EHR by healthcare professionals. It implies that the goal of the HITECH Act began achieving its goals. However, various challenges have been hindering the achievement of the benefits of the law through the meaningful use of EHRs such as its inability to effectively share health information and its inability to support multi-stakeholder interest. Even though early experiences of adopting the EHRs as per the HITECH Act reveals increased creation of digital infrastructure by healthcare institutions and professionals for the improved quality of care and reduction of healthcare costs, the effects have not been felt. There is the need for the government to focus on a different policy target that addresses the HITECH Act whose implementation is limited by the challenges of the EHR usability, limitations on interoperability and the insistence of fee-for-service.

References

Adler-Milstein, J., & Jha, A. (2017). HITECH Act Drove Large Gains in Hospital Electronic Health Record Adoption. Health Affairs, 36(8), 1416-1422.

Buntin, M., Burke, M., Hoaglin, M., & Blumenthal, D. (2011). The benefits of health information technology: A review of the recent literature shows predominantly positive results. Health Affairs, 30(3), 464-471.

Ford, E., Menachemi, N., Peterson, L., & Huerta, T. (2009). Resistance is futile: But it is slowing the pace of EHR adoption nonetheless. JAMIA, 16(3),274-281.

Maxson, E., Jain, S., Kendall, M., Mostashari, F., & Blumenthal, D. (2010). The regional extension center program: Helping physicians meaningfully use health information technology. Annals of Internal Medicine, 153(10), 666-670.

Mennemeyer, S Menachemi, N., Rahurkar, S., & Ford, E. (2016). Impact of the HITECH Act on physicians' adoption of electronic health records. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 23(2), 375-379.

Rahurkar, S., Vest, J., and Menachemi, N. (2015). Despite The Spread Of Health Information Exchange, There Is Little Evidence Of Its Impact On Cost, Use, And Quality Of Care. Health Affairs, 34(3), 477-483.

Sheikh, A., Sood, H., & Batesm, D. (2015). Leveraging health information technology to achieve the "triple aim" of healthcare reform. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 22(4), 849-856.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d). HITECH act enforcement interim final rule. Health Information Privacy. Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/hitech-act-enforcement-interim-final-rule/index.html