HITECH Act

How Will The Health Information for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) Impact Your Hospital or Practice?

Most hospital administrators and physicians are busy running their facilities and practices and may never have heard of The Health Information for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH).
HITECH: “Eligible Hospitals & Physicians” will be eligible for incentive payments up to $44,000 from Medicare and $65,000 from Medicaid to help cover costs of Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption. The $19 Billion dollar (EHR) provision provides an ideal opportunity to become compliant using US Government appropriated funds.

Now’s the time to learn how you can attain the grant funding needed to meet new government mandates.
Here’s what you need to know:

1. HITECH was recently enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to encourage hospitals and health care providers to adopt “meaningful use” of Electronic Health Records (EHR).
2. Within this act, there are (EHR) discretionary funds and incentives totaling $19 BILLION DOLLARS for funding implementations. These implementations may create the need for a “change to hospital facilities.” For hospitals, it may require new standalone buildings, upgrades, renovations and the addition of Information Technology (IT) Systems, or upgrades to existing hospital IT infrastructure and datacenters.
3. For private physicians, the HITECH Act may require upgrades to existing IT infrastructure, or implementation of electronic media to store patient records.
4. For hospitals and physicians, the mission critical requirements create a need for essential IT upgrade and support systems, and in some instances new facilities.

To assist in these upcoming challenges, a group of specialized partners have formed the Alliance for Access to Electronic Health Records (AAEHR). Currently, this world-class alliance is connecting to funding, putting advanced architectural/engineering services in place, bringing in a progressive construction team, and positioning a technically adept project management team to meet goals and adhere to mandates and regulations.

And, because of our significant associations and connections in Washington, we are prepared to  assist clients in not only gaining a full understanding of the HITECH Act requirements, but provide assistance on how to utilize vital government funding. The impending legislation creates critical issues for hospitals and healthcare providers, but the most crucial is: how do you acquire the funding to meet these mandates?

AAEHR is poised to offer a turnkey solution, from funding to construction, so your focus can stay on providing quality healthcare.  As with any government funded project, we suggest early response to solidify your position for funding and EARLY adoption incentives.