Study: Health IT investments needs results-oriented standards

Billions of dollars are soon to flow into health IT investments through the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly known as the stimulus package. The question is, how effective will those investments be? According to a new study, these funds could be all but wasted if there's no focus to how they're spent.

The study, sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, argued that stimulus funds should be used to establish a results-driven standard for "meaningful use" of health IT. This should come as part of larger reforms that retool payments to providers and health IT vendors to encourage higher-quality, more efficient healthcare, researchers said.

In other words, researchers concluded that health IT is necessary, but not sufficient, to make health reform work. Makes a lot sense, doesn't it?

To learn more about the research:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)

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Meaningful use definitions: Why bother?

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