First few Article Sentences
Hospitals without electronic health records and their related functions are scurrying to meet the obligations of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “Act”). The Act provides over $2 billion in financial incentives from Medicare and Medicaid to those organizations that are making “meaningful use” (defined in great detail on the CMS website) of an electronic health record starting in 2011. Further, beginning in 2015, late adopters of electronic health records will find themselves penalized by a 1% cut in Medicare reimbursement for each year that implementation is delayed (up to a 5 % maximum), thus contributing to the pressure for timely completion.