ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS (EHR)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) includes the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or the "HITECH Act," which established programs under Medicare and Medicaid to provide incentive payments for the "meaningful use" of certified electronic health records (EHR) technology.

There is *no federal deadline* for adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by dentists who do not submit claims to Medicare. However, Medicare eligible professionals will have a payment adjustment in their Medicare reimbursement for failure to implement “meaningful use” of EHRs starting in 2015. Eligible professionals may begin participating in the Medicare EHR incentive program as early as 2011, and the program ends in 2016.

The Medicare and Medicaid program aspects of HITECH may not affect most dentists because many dentists do not provide Medicare-covered services or meet the Medicaid incentive program patient-volume threshold. However, dentists should not ignore other aspects of HITECH, especially those parts concerning Privacy, Security, and the Breach Notification Rule.

Louisiana has already started a Medicaid EHR Incentive Program in which eligible medical professionals and hospitals can receive incentive payments for adopting, implementing or upgrading certified EHR technology during their first year of participation, and can earn payments for up to five subsequent years for demonstrating meaningful use of EHR

For more information on the Louisiana Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, click here.

For more information on EHRs in general, refer to the ADA’s website by clicking here.

**This information is permanently found in the Rules & Regulations area of the LDA website, under "News & Info For Your Practice."