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Funding in Stimulus: The Scope of the Opportunity for Health Information Technology, a session at HIMSS09, not only informed the audience of a definition of certified EHR technology and qualified health record as it relates to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA),

the budget for 2009 and 2010, the Medicaid and Medicare Incentives for eligible professionals and hospitals, but also the vision of the scope of opportunity health information technology (HIT) endows us with.  Truly, a paradigm shift in the way healthcare is administered today is perhaps inevitable, as a restored view of the whole person in a systemic approach is the only way high quality and low cost co-exist with each other, a position the ARRA is trying to reach, after all.  “It is the only approach that has shown itself capable of reducing costs and improving quality simultaneously but it won't work if you just apply it to our current system.  Only when you look at the whole person and we restore our view of individual health to a holistic view that you get the real improvement in quality and real reduction in costs,” stated the Honorable Nancy L. Johnson, Senior Public Policy Advisor, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC., co-presenter of the seminar.

One of the reasons why Session ESP-2 at HIMSS09, was titled ‘The Scope of the Opportunity’ is because the purpose of HIT, as Honorable Johnson said “is to expand the scope of our concept of healthcare so that it includes prevention, chronic disease management, and other approaches that will reduce the use of hospital and emergency rooms and improve the quality of healthcare.”

An important note, however, in HIT, as it relates to the stimulus afforded by the ARRA, is not about government handing out money to create technology, contrary to what some beliefs may be.  “It is about the government putting a lot of money out there for adoption and use.  It is a huge opportunity for our innovative structure and the entrepreneurial nature of America's economy,” comments Susan Christensen, Senior Public Policy Advisor,  Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC., co-presenter of the session, because "the current system of electronic health records are nice but they are not interoperable.”

Understanding what ‘certified EHR technology’ and ‘qualified EHR’ is will certainly assist in conforming to ‘show me the money’ eligibility requirements when healthcare professionals and hospitals are ready to accept the responsibility of EHR adoption.  A ‘qualified EHR’ means an electronic record of health related information that includes patient demographics and clinical health information and has the capacity to provide computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and to exchange and integrate electronic health information with other sources.  ‘Certified EHR technology’ is simply a certified ‘qualified EHR.’  These definitions are the basis for eligibility as incentives under Medicare and Medicaid require meaningful use and must be certified.  Grants, loans, and technical assistance would also be available to those that effectively use ‘certified EHR technology.’

So, how much are we talking about?  The Obama budget identifies a possible total of $1.2T; $77B over ARRA funding and an additional $630B for overall health care reform.  It is important to stress, however, that money is going to flow to the doctors that adopt a system that can reach the goal of integrated care.   “Buy a change in behavior, buy improvements in behavior, and if you will improve health, you will increase your reimbursement rate,” concludes the Honorable Nancy Johnson.