Congressional intent for the HITECH Act

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, calls for an unprecedented federal investment in health information technology (IT). Incentive payments will be made available through the Medicare programs and Medicaid to doctors and hospitals that use health IT in a meaningful way (ie, to advance delivery of high-quality healthcare). These IT systems have to be certified as meeting certain technological standards. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that HITECH will reduce federal and private sector spending on health services during the next decade by tens of billions of dollars by increasing efficiency.