Report to Congress on HITECH: Significant progress in adoption and use of EHRs

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted the annual report to Congress on progress on the HITECH Act including health IT adoption, health information exchange and use of electronic health information to advance better care and better health. This report highlights progress and accomplishments in advancing a resilient and flexible health IT infrastructure for our nation.

In 2009 when the HITECH Act became law as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, health IT adoption among providers and hospitals was just beginning and moving slowly. Since that time, we have seen significant increases in adoption of certified technology amongst both sets of meaningful use providers. Three-quarters of eligible professionals and nine in ten eligible hospitals received incentive payments from the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. There have also been significant advances in health information exchange. More than six in ten hospitals electronically exchanged patients’ health information with any providers outside their organization, a 51 percent increase since 2008. Seven in ten health care providers use an EHR to e-prescribe on the Surescripts Network, and more than half of new and renewed prescriptions are sent electronically.

In this past year, many of our federal programs have reached important milestones:

• Our regional extension centers (REC) surpassed their goal and currently support over 100,000 providers demonstrating Stage 1 Meaningful Use.
• ONC’s Health IT Workforce Development Program concluded in 2013, training over 20,000 students.
• The State Health Information Exchange Program supported state efforts to advance exchange, resulting in 47 states and territories having directed exchange broadly available and 34 states with query-based exchange broadly available.

The 2014 congressional report highlights the recent accomplishments in the adoption and use of health IT as HHS sets a new course and navigates the future direction post-HITECH. The growing adoption of health IT, the success in digitizing the content of the care experience, puts pressure on the need for that electronic health information to be appropriately shared and used to improve health and care no matter the technology developer, information platforms, location, provider, or other boundaries. Information sharing across all provider types and among individuals is vital for improving care delivery, along with individual and community health, which means the next steps for HHS is to help realize the power and promise of health IT by ensuring that data is collected, shared and used.