The HITECH Act and Chiropractic Care
As an update to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) was passed in an effort to enhance the technological infrastructure in the United States healthcare system.
This law was passed as way for the Department of Health and Human Services to create incentives for medical facilities to use technology in their processes as a way to improve the quality of care and the efficiency of delivery. With a set of different programs that incentivize using technology in the healthcare space, the Department of Health and Human Services is offering different types of assistance to medical facilities in the form of financial and administrative resource provision.
In chiropractic care, this is providing many opportunities for practices to take advantage of these programs. With respect to Medicare and Medicaid, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Service are operating a program that incentivizes electronic health records in chiropractic care clinics nationwide. If a practice incorporates an electronic health records system, then both the practice and the professionals that are partners in this practice have the option to be rewarded with incentive payments for using the system. In buying electronic health records software and using it for the development of the practice’s technological process, it shows the Department of Health and Human Services that the practices are complying with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as well as making an effort to bring about a new level of effectiveness in this space.
In providing these incentives, the Department of Health and Human Services is hoping that HITECH will revolutionize care delivery as we know it. In the realm of chiropractic care, practices have the ability to significantly alter the course of their practice’s development with electronic health records and various governmental stakeholders are taking notice. With these incentives, we can expect to see a large turnaround for the future of chiropractic care.
Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of Steven Vance
