According to the publication, the HITECH Act is aimed at trying to improve the performance of the healthcare system and ultimately, the health of all Americans. However, there are some obstacles to overcome. For example, it has been shown that some healthcare providers lack technical expertise, so they must gain knowledge and understanding of which is the right system to use. How will this be overcome? Incentives. Healthcare providers can receive as much as $44,000 in extra income if they are âmeaningful usersâ of the electronic healthcare records.
According to Dr. Blumenthalâs publication, there are four mains goals in Health IT of the Obama administration. First, is to define meaningful use. Second, is to support the meaningful use through incentives. Third, is to increase public support and trust of electronic healthcare systems by maintaining privacy and security. The last goal is to continue health IT innovation.
Dr. Blumenthal is certain that âit is impossible to imagine a high-performing U.S. healthcare system that does not take full advantage of the computing technology that has transformed virtually every other aspect of human endeavor.â The government has already committed $650 million to create a network of health IT centers and ONC has announced another $60 million that will be put into encouraging the use of Health IT.