HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HIT)

White Paper

Looming federal legislation and new regulations can make budgeting for Health Information and Technology (HIT) a landscape filled with great horizons or landmines. Sometimes, both occur simultaneously. However, making a commitment to HIT is no longer dispensable – it is essential.

“Correctly linking patients to their health data is a vital step in achieving quality health care,” stated the Rand Corporation’s Richard Hillestad in 2008.

A triad of business, clinical and technical issues faces the industry with the common goal of interoperability. The ever-growing demand for transparency and efficiency in health care services from the public and tighter reimbursements from payers adds additional challenges.

Regarding HIT, the Medical Leadership Institute of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota calls it a means to an end in establishing the three central components of healthcare reform, which are:

• the increase of quality and safety of care
• the decrease of care costs
• improved access to all Americans

Governmental changes, on federal and state levels, are underway. Namely, 2009’s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) have many, from committed individual physician practices, private and public hospitals and state and federal public health agencies to research institutes and academic health centers, trying to comply with a volunteer program for electronic health records (EHR).

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