The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

ARRA Legislation

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act which appropriates $20 billion for Health IT under the HITECH Act. While $2 Billion is delivered immediately to the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the majority of the stimulus money has been allocated to physicians and hospitals who demonstrate use of Electronic Health Records. In order to be eligible for the government’s stimulus money, healthcare providers are required to demonstrate the following:

• Use of a certified EHR product with ePrescribing that conforms to HHS requirements of “meaningful use”
• Ability to connect to other providers to enable sharing of patient’s health information
• Use the EHR to report on clinical measures as selected by HHS

Stimulus Money for Eligible Providers

Providers are encouraged to adopt EHR and show meaningful use sooner than later. The Government has identified two channels to funnel payments to eligible providers; Medicare and Medicaid.

Eligible Providers under the Medicare Provision can receive a total of up to $44,000 in incentive payments beginning in 2011 and ending in 2015. Larger amounts will be paid early on the program (2011) and there will be penalties for eligible providers who will not participate and will not show meaningful use of an EHR by 2014. Penalties will include a 1 percent reduction in Medicare Part B reimbursement fee schedule beginning in 2015. This increases to 2 percent in 2016, and 3 percent in 2017 and beyond.

Eligible Providers under the Medicaid Provision with at least 30% Medicaid patient population (20% for pediatricians) are eligible to receive up to $63,750 over 6 years (starting in 2011). The formula for Medicaid reimbursement will be calculated as 85% of EHR purchase costs ranging from $25,000 in the first year to $10,000 in subsequent years. The Medicaid EHR program is voluntary for states to implement and thus may not be an option in every state.

The Accumedic Pledge

Accumedic is committed to helping you obtain information on available funding for EMR systems, including financing of AccuMed™ EMR until you receive the stimulus money. Contact Us at (800)765-9300 or at info@accumedic.com to learn more about The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.