What is Health Information for Economic and Clinical Health (HITEACH) Act of 2009

Requires certified Electronic Health Records (EHR’s). This requires providers to commit continued use of EHR technology over a period of years. There are no measurable thresholds and programmatic timelines (Joseph, Sow, Furukawa, Posnack, & Chaffee, 2014). However, the certification process for EHR vendors has reduced provider uncertainty by establishing an unbiased validation service to ensure that certain functionality is available. Providers have to meet certain criteria of “meaningful use”. To an extent that has put the market and not the federal government in determining the vendors that will meet the provider needs with the financial incentives (Joseph, et al., 2014).

Trends in Health Care Information Technology and Informatics

T. Ray Ruffin (University of Phoenix, USA & Colorado Technical University, USA & Grand Canyon University, USA & Ashford University, USA, & North Carolina Wesleyan College, USA) and Donna Patterson Hawkins (University of Phoenix, USA)