Government Initiatives for Total EHR

Electronic health records (EHR) can provide many benefits for providers and their patients:

• Complete and accurate information. Providers can have all the information they need through their PC to provide the best possible care.
• Better access to information. EHRs facilitate greater access to the information that providers need to diagnose health problems earlier and improve the health outcomes of their patients. EHRs also allow information to be shared more easily among doctors’ offices, hospitals, and across health systems, leading to better coordination of care.

• Encourage patient education. EHRs will help empower patients to take a more active role in their health and in the health of their families. Patients can receive electronic copies of their medical records and share their health information securely over the Internet.

Many government issues are promoting EHR and also providing incentives to move towards a total paperless medical system. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was initiated in 1996, which was formed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and was the first government ruling to set national standards addressing electronic records and patient privacy.  This Act also opened doors to encourage the use of data interchange through electronic health records (EHR).

In 2005 the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) within HHS was established to promote the development of a nationwide interoperable healthcare information technology (HIT) harmonization process. 

In 2009 the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to use health information technology to move the U.S. healthcare system to broad adoption of standards-based EHR systems on a national basis provides incentives for entities that adopt EHR and widened the scope of privacy and security provisions of HIPAA. The goal of ONCHIT and the HITECH Act is to have 100% electronic health records implemented by 2015.