Are they parent/child? Are they neighbors? Actually, they’re more like siblings. Each of them was born to the parent known as the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” (“ARRA”) which the President signed in 2009.
ARRA had two major provisions - one was the HITECH Act, which amended HIPAA (the usual subject of this blog!).
The other was Meaningful Use, sometimes called the Stimulus Bill, which exists in parallel with HITECH. Although there is some relationship between them, each part of ARRA leads its own life.
While HITECH concerns itself with the rules surrounding electronic records and their various delivery mechanisms, Meaningful Use is set up to establish milestones that providers must meet in order to qualify for stimulus money.
After achieving a certified electronic health record (EHR) system, each eligible provider or hospital can file, beginning in 2011, for money, once they can prove the “meaningful use” of their new technology. There are significant hurdles that each such provider must overcome in order to qualify for these Meaningful Use funds, including a minimum of 15 required objectives (14 for hospitals) plus five optional ones. One of the required objectives has a dotted line to HITECH – requiring that medical records requested by a patient to be delivered electronically from an EHR are so delivered within three business days of receipt of the request. This 3-business-day turnaround falls upon HIM departments – or their ROI providers – to ensure. HealthPort can work with you to help meet this requirement.