A recent report released by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that doctors' adoption of health information technology (IT) has doubled in two years. Health information technology improves access to care and increases coordination among the medical teams, but without compromising the protection of personal information.
According to the administration, health IT can lead to safer, better, and more efficient care. In an effort to further widen the adoption of health IT among the doctors nationwide, new administrative steps are being taken, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius revealed in a press release. The new administrative actions were made possible by the HITECH Act, which offers incentive-based plans in which healthcare professional are given incentive payments for fostering the growth of health IT.
HHS is also going to make it easier to adopt health IT for the doctors and other healthcare professionals through the introduction of key policy changes. These policy changes are accompanied by greater outreach efforts that will provide more information to doctors and hospitals about best practices and to vendors whose products allow health care providers to meaningfully use EHRs. To encourage faster adoption, the HHS plans to allow doctors and hospitals to adopt health IT this year, without meeting the new standards until 2014. Doctors who act quickly can also qualify for incentive payments in 2011 as well as 2012.
The new actions are expected to not only improve healthcare, but also spur the job growth across the nation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of health IT jobs across the country is expected to increase by 20 percent from 2008 to 2018, much faster than the average for all occupations through 2018.
According to data, health IT is contributing to the nation’s job growth. Over 50,000 health IT-related jobs have been created since the enactment of the HITECH Act.
“When doctors and hospitals use health IT, patients get better care and we save money. We're making great progress, but we can't wait to do more. Too many doctors and hospitals are still using the same record-keeping technology as Hippocrates. Today, we are making it easier for health care providers to use new technology to improve the health care system for all of us and create more jobs,” Secretary Sebelius said in a press release
Obama Administration is currently working toward creating a nationwide network of 62 Regional Extension Centers. The latest action plan is going to complement existing outreach efforts to doctors and hospitals, the department clarified.
The healthcare department also released a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey, which reportedly found 52 percent of office-based physicians in the U.S. now intend to take advantage of the incentive payments available for doctors and hospitals through the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
To meet the demand for workers with health IT experience and training, the Obama Administration has launched four workforce development programs that help train the new health IT workforce, the department disclosed in the release.
The state of Michigan is a case in point as to how HER is changing the health landscape in the state. In a separate press release, The Michigan Center for Effective IT Adoption announced that more than 3,724 primary care providers in Michigan have committed to adopting electronic health records to help improve their quality of care and lower health care costs. This represents a commitment by almost one-quarter of primary care providers in the state to work with M-CEITA, Michigan's federally designated Health IT Regional Extension Center, to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs as a way to transition from paper records to EHRs.
Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Tammy Wolf
