By Healthcare IT News Staff

It has been an up-and-down year for healthcare informational technology. The biggest story, no doubt, was the impact that national recession had on healthcare investments – way back in January, the picture was bleak. But with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the industry received a $19 billion shot in the arm from the new Obama Administration. While the money – to be used as incentives for adopting healthcare IT – doesn’t begin to flow in 2011, EHR adoption planning has already begun.

In the second half of the year, the top issue has been healthcare reform. The last sentences on that story have yet to be written, but on Dec. 24, the Senate finally passed its own bill. All that remains is reconciling the Senate and House versions and President Obama’s signature.

Below you’ll find the top issues of the last 12 months, selected by the editors of Healthcare IT News.

Privacy issues dog progess on NHIN

Privacy issues continue to keep the country’s planned nationwide health information network on the slow track, but government and community leaders say it won’t be a problem going forward. Yet things did not go exactly as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology planned at a demonstration last month, where 19 cooperative organizations were scheduled to use real patient data to show how interoperability works. Instead, they used fictitious patient records to demonstrate greater depth in capabilities for interoperability than the initial trial run held in September.

IT pledge has market on pins and needles

President Barack Obama’s pledge to inject $50 billion into the healthcare field over the next five years to develop and support technology has many in the industry wondering how and where that money might be spent. On Jan. 22, 117 CEOs and business leaders sent a letter to House and Senate leaders supporting federal investment in healthcare information technology, broadband and energy smart grids, saying they “will provide our nation with a near-term stimulus and long-term comparative advantage.”

$19 billion to fuel healthcare IT

The $787 billion economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17 includes $19 billion toward health information technology. While many healthcare IT industry insiders welcomed the spending as providing a needed impetus to pushing the healthcare system into the 21st Century, many also worried about getting IT done right. “I think it’s a terrible idea by the government to invest in healthcare IT – in EMR systems – without investing in standards,” said Marc Probst, CIO at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City.

HHS introduces new HIT Czar

Just as the April issue of Healthcare IT News was going to press, the Human Department of the Health and Services introduced David Blumenthal, MD, is Obama administration’s new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. “I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve President Obama and the American people in the effort to harness the power of health information technology,” Blumenthal said.

Hospitals shun life-saving IT

“Disappointing” and “disturbing” are two words Leah Binder chose to describe the results of a recent survey that revealed only 7 percent of hospitals across the country have adopted CPOE. CPOE, or computerized physician order entry, can reduce adverse events by 88 percent, according to Binder, the CEO of the healthcare watchdog organization The Leapfrog Group.

Obama budget reflects IT promise

President Barack Obama’s expanded fiscal year 2010 budget signals continued commitment to advancing healthcare IT as a way to cut healthcare costs and save lives. Obama’s $3.4 trillion federal budget, released May 8, expanded the outline he presented to Congress at the end of February.

Meaningful use draft approved

The federal health IT policy committee on July 16 approved long-awaited recommendations from its meaningful use workgroup on how providers can qualify to receive incentives through the new stimulus package. Measuring and improving outcomes is a key component.

Reform bill contains IT piece

The Senate Finance Committee health reform package, released Sept. 16, includes measures to advance healthcare IT. The committee’s reform bill has been the most controversial and the last proposal to come out of five Congressional committees that have jurisdiction over healthcare.

50,000 jobs: who will fill them?

The government’s piece of the stimulus package designed to encourage the adoption and use of healthcare information technology is expected to create 50,000 new jobs – maybe more.

Search is on for new CCHIT Chief

Key industry leaders are weighing in on the news that Mark Leavitt, MD, is retiring from his role as chairman of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology.

Above article publish on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/newsmakers-year-review

By, Bernie Monegain

WASHINGTON – The government announced Friday $60 million to support healthcare IT research projects aimed at “breakthrough” advances.

David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health information technology, said the money would support the development of Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP).

SHARP projects will conduct focused research in critical areas where breakthrough advances are needed to address existing barriers to the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology.

Applications are due on Jan. 25, 2010, with awards anticipated in March 2010.

The SHARP program identifies and works to address barriers to adoption in the following four areas:

• Security of Health Information Technology research to address the challenges of developing security and risk mitigation policies and the technologies necessary to build and preserve the public trust as health IT systems become ubiquitous.
• Patient-Centered Cognitive Support research to address the need to harness the power of health IT in a patient focused manner and align the technology with the day-to-day practice of medicine to support clinicians as they care for patients.
• Health care Application and Network Platform Architectures research to focus on the development of new and improved architectures that are necessary to achieve electronic exchange and use of health information in a secure, private, and accurate manner.
• Secondary Use of Electronic Health Record Data research to identify strategies to enhance the use of health IT in improving the overall quality of health care, population health and clinical research while protecting patient privacy.

Each project will identify and implement a research agenda addressing the specific goals of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and identify the barriers to adoption and meaningful use of heath IT that will be addressed in their research area.

HHS expects to award qualified applicants cooperative agreements to support research efforts in these four project areas. Each agreement will last four years. Awardees will implement a collaborative, interdisciplinary program of research addressing short-term and long-term challenges in their focus area.

Additionally, the projects are expected to develop and implement a cooperative program between researchers, healthcare providers, and other health IT sector stakeholders to incorporate research results into health IT practice and products.

Authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and part of the HITECH provisions of ARRA, the cooperative agreements are part of a series of grants to help strengthen and support the use of healthcare information technology.

“Innovative research and approaches are required to overcome some of the foremost challenges we face in achieving our vision of a transformed healthcare system enabled through health IT,” said Blumenthal. “The SHARP program will bring together some of the best and brightest minds in the nation to find breakthrough solutions and innovations that will eliminate barriers to adoption and, over time, increase the meaningful use of health IT to improve the health and care of all Americans.”

Above article publish on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/60m-aimed-breakthrough-healthcare-it-research

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick announced today that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be making $1,437,515 available to North Country HealthCare to help improve access to quality care in Greater Arizona. The funds are part of $851 million in grants that HHS will release to address facility and equipment needs at health care centers nationwide through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The announcement comes as the Congresswoman finishes her “Standing Up for Rural Arizona” tour, which included a stop at the opening of a new North Country clinic in Show Low. That facility was established with $1.3 million in Recovery Act funds. North Country will use this new grant to expand their clinics in Winslow and Kingman and to improve information technology and electronic health records infrastructure at their eleven sites across northern

Arizona.

“Rural Arizonans are being underserved by our current health care system, and this sort of investment allows us to benefit from 21st-century technology while reducing our costs,” said Rep. Kirkpatrick. “The staff at North Country does a great job with the resources they have. This grant will enable them to help even more folks in our communities access the services and treatment they need.”

The grants are being allocated through the Capital Improvement Program, which will support the construction, repair and renovation of over 1,500 health center sites across the country. Arizona health centers are benefitting from more than $16 million in funding for health technology improvements, with over $4 million granted to community health clinics in the First District.

“North Country HealthCare is busier than ever, and we are seeing more people show up who have lost their insurance,” said Ann Roggenbuck, North Country HealthCare president. “If they have a medical home, they are more likely to get the health care services they need and take care of medical problems before they get out of hand.”

This is the third round of health center grants provided through the Recovery Act. On March 2, HHS announced that $155 million would be available to establish 126 new health center sites, including the new Show Low clinic. Later that month, HHS released $338 million in Increased Demand for Service grants to help health centers provide care for additional patients. This included $449,304 for North Country, which provided 113,000 patient visits for medical, dental, and behavioral health care last year.

Above article published on

http://kirkpatrick.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=643:northern-arizona-today-rep-kirkpatrick-announces-more-than-14-million-in-funds-to-expand-clinics-improve-northern-arizona-health-care&catid=18:latest-releases&Itemid=75

Diana Manos, Senior Editor

Getting healthcare IT up and running in doctors’ offices is not the main objective behind the incentives provided by the federal government under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator of health information technology.

Improving health is.

At the 17th Annnual National HIPAA Summit held Sept. 15-18 in Washington, D.C., Blumenthal called the HITECH Act — included in ARRA — “brilliant” and “a visionary piece of legislation.” With $20 billion allotted to the advancement of healthcare IT, he said, the law would lay the foundation for health reform in the nation.

The United States has never spent this kind of money on sharing health information and protecting it, he said.

Blumenthal told attendees at the summit how he came to embrace the importance of healthcare IT. He had never been a technologically oriented person, he said, but was asked seven years ago by the hospital where he worked to learn how to use an electronic health record.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “But I soon learned it was an enormous boon to me to be able to access my patients’ records outside of the office.”

Blumenthal said he started using EHRs in his practice and noticed it changed the way he was able to take care of his patients. He could access specialists’ reports, lab results and medications. “I knew more about my patients. I could tell my patients things they needed to know and couldn’t know in a timely way from their specialists,” he said. “Those are things that had real value to me as a clinician and to my patients. That is the value that made me convinced that these technologies were going to benefit me as a clinician.”

Privacy is critical, Blumenthal added, and “absolutely foundational” to realizing the vision that the Obama administration has for improving healthcare through healthcare IT. The advancement of healthcare IT through ARRA will only be successful, he said, if the public has confidence in the privacy and security of their personal health information and if physicians buy in.

“The use of IT has professional competence at its core, ” he said. “I believe in the future my colleagues will see value in healthcare IT. Treating medicine is about information. Part of competence will be knowing how to protect (personal health) information, and another part will be knowing how to access it.”

Above article published on

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/healthcare-it-means-not-end-says-blumenthal

Diana Manos, Senior Editor

The HIT Policy Committee is holding a hearing today in Washington, D.C. to discuss the privacy aspects of healthcare IT found in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Jodi Daniel, director of the Office of Policy and Research at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), who opened the meeting this morning, said privacy and security are fundamental building blocks for meaningful use of healthcare IT.

“The success of health information technology and exchange rests on consumer and provider confidence in privacy and security protections,” she said.

Daniel outlined the key privacy aspects found in ARRA. The HIT Policy Committee is responsible for advising the federal government on:

• Technologies that protect the privacy of health information and promote security in an electronic health record;
• Segmentation and protection from disclosure of specific and sensitive individually identifiable health information with the goal of minimizing the reluctance of patients to seek care;
• Use and disclosure of limited data sets;
• Infrastructure that allows for accurate exchange;
• Technologies for an accounting of TPO (treatment, payment and health operations) disclosures;
• Technologies that allow IIHI to be rendered unusable, unreadable or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals; and
• Methods to facilitate secure access to personal health information by an individual or person assisting in care.

ONC officials proposed a breach notification rule in April, with a final rule out in August. The rule will be effective Sept. 23 with a comment period closing Oct. 23, Daniel said.

Deborah Peel, a national expert on patient healthcare IT privacy, was the first to testify today on patient privacy. “Millions of Americans are concerned about the control of their personal data,” she said. She said ensuring data privacy and security is the only way that healthcare IT can move forward successfully.

Peel said privacy should have been established before policy on healthcare IT.

Above article published on

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hit-policy-committee-holds-privacy-hearing-today

Healthcare IT News Staff

Healthcare IT chief David Blumenthal has joined the White House e-mail campaign for healthcare reform with a public letter sent via e-mail expounding the virtues of electronic health record systems as a critical piece of transformation.

Blumenthal’s e-mail Wednesday follows one sent last week by senior White House adviser David Axelrod aimed at countering what he called “the viral e-mails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies and distortions.

This initiative will lower costs, improve the practice of medicine and result in more reliable, efficient care, the letter says. It will also be “daunting” and “hard for some clinicians and hospitals,” Blumenthal concedes.

“The goal of assuring an electronic health record for every American is daunting,” he says. “We at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) do not pretend otherwise. We know this will be hard for some clinicians and hospitals, and we stand ready to help with resources provided by the Congress and the Administration.”

The positive benefits of a transition to a “modernized, interconnected, and vastly improved system of care delivery” are worth the struggle, he says.

“As a primary care physician for over 30 years, I spent the first twenty shuffling papers in search of missing studies and frequently hoping, during middle-of-the-night emergencies, that I knew enough about patients’ medical histories to make good decisions,” says Blumenthal. “All that changed when I began to have access to patients’ electronic medical records.”

Blumenthal urges readers to support ONC’s upcoming work under the HITECH Act, and pledges to keep Americans updates and “fully engaged” in the process.

The full text of the letter appears below.

Electronic Health Records and the 21st Century Health Care System

A Message from Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

In my role as National Coordinator for Health IT, I have the privilege to be part of a transformative change in health care that will help to extend the benefits of health information technology (HIT) to all Americans. With the passage earlier this year of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, we have the tools to begin a major transformation in American health care made possible through the creation of a secure, interoperable nationwide health information network.

Of course, this system is not an end in itself. Rather, it will enable countless other improvements in the quality and efficiency of health care that will make Americans healthier and their economy stronger.

My personal belief in this transformation is not based on theory or conjecture. As a primary care physician for over 30 years, I spent the first twenty shuffling papers in search of missing studies and frequently hoping, during middle-of-the-night emergencies, that I knew enough about patients’ medical histories to make good decisions. All that changed when I began to have access to patients’ electronic medical records. It made me a much better doctor. I would never go back, and neither would the vast majority of American physicians who have made the leap into the electronic age.

In fact, it would be hard for any health professional today to escape the conclusion that the antiquated, paper-dominated system we now have in place isn’t working well for patients, creates added costs and inefficiencies, and isn’t sustainable. As we look at our nation’s annual health care expenditures of approximately $2.5 trillion, there are many ways our current system fails both patients and providers. It is clear that change is necessary.

But how and why is nationwide electronic health information exchange so critical to achieving such change? Most importantly, because it provides the best opportunity for each patient to receive optimal care. The technology will make patients complete medical information securely and reliably available to health care providers where and when it is needed when clinician and patient are together facing medical decisions that can make a lasting difference.

Better, faster, more reliable and efficient care also ultimately reduces system-wide costs by delivering results that help to avoid expensive or prolonged hospitalization from delayed or ineffective treatment, avert costly and sometimes fatal adverse events and unnecessary procedures, and can help to eliminate the onset of disease by better informed management of each patient’s health.

The goal of assuring an electronic health record for every American is daunting. We at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) do not pretend otherwise. We know this will be hard for some clinicians and hospitals, and we stand ready to help with resources provided by the Congress and the Administration.

We also recognize that we cannot achieve the benefits of a nationwide health information system unless we can assure all Americans that their personal health information will remain private and secure when this system exists. Putting into place safeguards for the privacy and security of this information, when it is in electronic form, will be an ongoing priority that influences and guides all of our efforts.

In the days, weeks, and months ahead, we will be rolling out a number of pivotal initiatives called for under the HITECH Act. I urge you to join and support us as we lay the foundation for every American to benefit from an electronic health record, as part of a modernized, interconnected, and vastly improved system of care delivery. We at ONC will be making every effort to keep you updated and fully engaged in all the steps of this national journey.

Above article published on

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/blumenthal-open-letter-seeks-support-oncs-health-it-plans?page=0

Diana Manos, Senior Editor

President Barack Obama took his health reform cause to a higher level Wednesday night in an address to a joint session of Congress.

It’s rare for a president to address a joint session of Congress, aside from the annual state of the union speech, but Obama has felt that the hotly debated healthcare reform issue merits the attention.

Obama has long supported healthcare IT as a foundation for change. Preventive treatment, best practices and fraud prevention–all part of his reform plan–rely on healthcare IT.

In his speech, he highlighted healthcare facilities such as Intermountain Healthcare in Utah and the Geisinger Health System in rural Pennsylvania – both of which, he said, offer high-quality care at costs below average. Both facilities have been committed to health IT adoption and use for decades.

Obama said healthcare reform is fundamental to saving the American economy. “Our collective failure to meet this challenge – year after year, decade after decade – has led us to the breaking point,” he said.

Four of five Congressional committees assigned to draft a health reform bill have completed their work, with the Senate Finance Committee announcing Wednesday they are nearing completion of their bill.

“Our overall efforts have been supported by an unprecedented coalition of doctors and nurses, hospitals, seniors’ groups and even drug companies – many of whom opposed reform in the past,” Obama said. “And there is agreement in this chamber on about 80 percent of what needs to be done, putting us closer to the goal of reform than we have ever been.”

The president’s speech drew praise from a number of analysts and healthcare experts.

“It was encouraging to see the president’s commitments to efficiency, effectiveness and innovation while reducing waste and fraud in our healthcare system,” said Justin T. Barnes, vice president of marketing and government affairs at Greenway Medical Technologies and chairman of the Electronic Health Record Association.

“Healthcare reform can’t even exist without a health IT foundation,” he said. “No matter what direction you go in health reform you have to go with health IT.”

Barnes, who works closely on Capitol Hill and with the administration, said Obama has consistently advocated healthcare IT. “He personally ensured the health IT adoption incentives stayed in the stimulus package because he knew that health IT is the essential framework needed to support any healthcare reform that truly could slow the growth of costs, increase access while creating better outcomes, increasing care quality and saving lives,” he said.

Thomas M. Leary, senior director of federal affairs at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society said, “President Obama’s speech reinforces the necessity for the adoption and meaningful use of healthcare IT solutions outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment and Act, and emphasizes the essential role interoperable tools will have in ensuring the quality, access, and cost effectiveness improvements the president is seeking.”

Above article published on

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/obama-endorses-healthcare-it-joint-session-congress

By the Associated Press

President Barack Obama, faced with falling approval ratings and increasingly impatient with Senate negotiations over health care, is weighing a shift in strategy that would offer more details of his goals for overhauling the nation’s healthcare system.

The president is considering a speech in the next week or so in which he would be “more prescriptive” about what he feels Congress must include in a bill, top adviser David Axelrod said Tuesday in an interview. The speech might occur before the Sept. 15 deadline the White House gave to Senate negotiators to seek a bipartisan bill, Axelrod said. He suggested that two key Republicans have not bargained in good faith.

Congress reconvenes next Tuesday after an August recess in which critics of Obama’s health proposals dominated many public forums.

Some Obama allies, watching his approval ratings tumble in polls along with support for a healthcare overhaul, have urged the president to take a more hands-on approach. They feel he gave too much leeway to Congress, where one bill has passed three House committees, another has passed a Senate committee and a third has been bogged down in protracted negotiations in the Senate Finance Committee.

Axelrod indicated that Obama would not offer new proposals but would be more specific about his top priorities.

“The ideas are all there on the table,” Axelrod said. “Now we are in a new phase, and it’s time to pull the strands of these together.”

He said there is serious discussion in the White House of Obama “giving a speech that lays out in specific ways what he thinks” about the essential elements of a healthcare bill.

Axelrod said it was possible that the speech could occur before a planned Sept. 15 Obama address on healthcare in Pittsburgh.

Obama has called for innovations such as a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers, but he has not insisted on it. It was not clear Tuesday the degree to which he might press for various proposals in a new speech.

Obama also plans to meet with Democratic congressional leaders on Tuesday.

Above article published on

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090902/REG/309029973/-

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the nation can use healthcare IT to dig itself out of the ever-increasing burden of escalating healthcare costs.

In his fourth prime time TV press conference Wednesday night, Obama said he would like to see a bill pushed through as early as this summer, but he won’t sign a bill that puts the majority of the burden on the backs of the middle class.

As Capitol Hill debates the merits of proposed healthcare reforms, the president has been lobbying for change, making almost daily speeches to educate the American public on what his reform plan would hold.

Obama and the Democrats have said two-thirds of the cost of the proposed healthcare overhaul would come from eliminating wasteful or fraudulent spending of taxpayer dollars. The remaining third is up for debate, with Obama recommending limiting tax deductions for the wealthiest Americans to match deductions available to middle class Americans. He said he is not sure if Congress will follow his advice, and the House is currently considering taxing Americans who jointly earn more than $1 million a year.

Obama’s speech and his answers to questions about healthcare reform emphasized that change must come, and it will involve the use of healthcare IT to eliminate duplicate testing, prevent medical errors, help monitor chronic care, encourage preventive care and help doctors know what care is most effective. Without these changes, he said, the nation will maintain a status quo that will bankrupt more families.

“Currently, 14 million Americans lose their health insurance every day,” Obama said. “This is about Americans who don’t have healthcare, and this is about every American who has ever worried about losing healthcare.”

Obama rebuffed recent attacks from Republicans over the healthcare plans. “This isn’t about me. I have excellent healthcare, as do all the members of Congress. This is about the American people,” he said.

He also reiterated that his plan would provide a public plan to compete with the private insurance industry, helping to drive innovative market solutions to lowering costs.

Above article published on

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/obama-sticks-
healthcare-it-prime-time-plea-reform

Diana Manos, Senior Editor

WASHINGTON – The economic stimulus package has allotted $17.2 billion to reward Medicare and Medicaid providers who can prove they are using certified healthcare IT “in a meaningful way.”
The incentives are scheduled to take effect starting Oct. 1, 2011. Experts say providers should not waste time getting prepared because there is a shortage of change management experts available to help.

According to Dave Garets, president and CEO HIMSS Analytics, 94 percent of hospitals currently don’t have enough healthcare IT in place to meet the stipulations required to receive bonuses. Under the new law, they must prove “meaningful use,” which will require capturing certain data.

Garets expects that healthcare organizations will adopt healthcare IT “with a vengeance” in 2009. He and other members of the Healthcare Information and Management and Systems Society are concerned there are “precious few” change management experts to help providers make the complicated transition to healthcare IT by 2011.

Garets said it’s not as simple as hiring a software technician to make the transition. There is a need for qualified people who know how to help with workflow adaptation and how to implement software packages so they work for the organization.
“These people are extremely valuable and extremely rare,” he said.

Payments under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act are graduated in descending amounts for federal fiscal years 2011 and 2015. After 2015, there are penalties for providers that do not use healthcare IT. The sooner a provider is ready to go with healthcare IT, the more likely they are to cash in on the maximum possible, Garets said.

According to HIMSS leaders’ interpretation of the law, physicians can earn from $44,000 to more than $60,000 in extra payments over the five-year period, including $18,000 the first year. Incentives for hospitals will start at a base of $2 million annually.

To qualify for bonuses, providers must have certified electronic health record technology capable of providing clinical decision support to physician order entry and capturing query information relevant to healthcare quality. The system must also be able to exchange and integrate electronic health information with other sources.

The maximum payment for qualifying physicians under the stimulus package is $18,000 for the first year, $12,000 for the second year, $8,000 for the third year, $4,000 for the fourth year and $2,000 for the fifth year.

For those failing to use certified qualifying healthcare IT by 2014, Medicare payments will be reduced to 99 percent in 2015, 98 percent in 2016 and 97 percent thereafter.

Hospitals will have to submit data on clinical quality measures and other measures to be determined by the Department of Health and Human Services secretary.

Payment for hospitals is a complicated formula that includes the discharge amount and Medicare share a hospital receives.

The state is authorized to make bonus payments, beginning in 2011, to physicians who provide Medicaid services, are not hospital-based and have at least 30 percent Medicaid patient volume. Federally qualified health centers or rural health clinics with at least 30 percent Medicaid patient volume can receive up to $63,750 in incentives and will not face reductions in Medicaid payments if they do not adopt certified EHR technology.

The “meaningful use” of healthcare IT is yet to be determined by the HHS secretary under the new law.
On Monday, President Barack Obama nominated Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to fill this role. If Sebelius is confirmed by the Senate, she will also oversee standards development and select clinical quality measures used to determine providers’ worthiness for receiving healthcare IT incentives under the new law.

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/big-money-stimulus-
package-hit-users-prepare-now-experts-say