The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The federal government as part of its initiative to reduce the cost of healthcare and improve quality passed legislation called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). A provision in ARRA included the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) which created incentives for hospitals and physicians to adopt clinical health information technology. HITECH resulted in the creation of “meaningful use” criteria for EHRs. All of the following are “meaningful use” use criteria except for one the following:

a. Improve quality, safety, and efficiency of Problematic employees

b. Provide patients access to their EHR through “smartphone” technology

c. Improve care coordination

d. Improve population and public health