I have divided the implications of the three mandates into two categories one that affects clinical side of healthcare and the other is the administrative including applications, processes and workflows
1) Health Information and Technology for Economics and Clinical Health Act (HITCH)
- By adopting clinical technology both hospitals and clinicians can qualify for incentives from the government
- Cash incentives for the first 4 years
- There will be penalties after 4 years if not compliance
- There are three stages defined by Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) called “Meaningful Use” for the adaption of clinical technology that must be met both by hospitals and clinicians to qualify for their max cash incentive for a particular year
- Stage 1: Data Capture & Sharing – Capture health information in electronic structured format. This stage has already started in 2011
- Stage 2: Advanced Clinical Processes – Point of care quality improvement and electronic exchange of information – Scheduled to begin in 2013
- Stage 3: Improved Outcomes – Improvements in quality, safety and efficiency clinical decision support & patient self-management tools. This stage is scheduled to being in 2015
2) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act 2010
- Adoptions of technology for healthcare administration
- New technology standards for electronic claim systems need to adapted by the current systems
3) International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM)
- Upgrade from ICD–9-CM to of ICD-10-CM
- Overhaul of the billing and medical coding system
- From 13,000 codes in ICD-9-CM to approx 65,0000 codes in ICD-10-CM
I will add more details on each mandates on how these changes affect the hospitals and practices in my next blog
Technology Leader - CTO 