Quick Reference for Acronyms and Buzzwords of ARRA and HITECH

ARRA: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also called “The Stimulus Package” or “The Stimulus Bill.”  Of the $850B in the bill,  $51B is pegged for the health care industry and $19B of that will be used to incent medical practices to adopt EMRs/EHRs.

CCHIT: the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology is a private organization that certifies EMRs and EHRs based on 475 criteria spanning functionality, interoperability and security.  CCHIT does not evaluate ease of use of products, financial viability of the company offering the software; or the quality of customer support offered by the software vendor.  Whether or not CCHIT will be THE certifying organization to approve “qualified EMRs” will be announced at the end of the year.  (Can be pronounced “SEA-CHIT” or each letter can be pronounced as in “C.C.H.I.T.”)

Comparative Effectiveness: Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) compares treatments and strategies to improve health.  For CER, HITECH provides $300M for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, $400M for the National Institutes of Health, and $400M for the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. (more…)