This technical assistance brief from the Center for Health Care Strategies highlights the importance of additional outreach, engagement, and technical assistance to support small group practices to meet the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act requirements for incentive payments for the meaningful use of certified electronic health records. Many of these small group practices are eligible for the HITECH Act incentives through the Medicaid program but will need this additional level of technical assistance to meet the requirements for the incentive payments. This technical assistance brief describes experiences in Oklahoma, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to implement and support common disease registries among Medicaid providers. There are important lessons learned for how to support such small practices in implementing other types of health information technology, including full electronic health record systems.
Ignatius Bau 