McKesson has launched its Achieve Health Information Technology (HIT) program, developed in response to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which was a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This legislation requires a nationwide interoperable, privacy-protected health information technology infrastructure as called for in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Noting that the HITECH provision endorse and provide incentives for rapid implementation and relevant use of technology to reduce healthcare costs, McKesson now offers help for physicians who look to fulfill the meaningful use requirement and qualify for new government incentives.

Specifically, McKesson will provide an online information resource for physicians at mckesson.com/doctors. Additionally, the company has a free physician hotline at 877-347-1625 with McKesson representatives on hand to discuss electronic health record requirements with physicians and their staff.

The HITECH stimulus provisions call for reimbursement incentives of up to $64,000 per physician, based on the fulfillment of certain criteria. Hospitals qualify for $2-$8 million in funding. Incentives take effect on October 2010 for hospitals and January 2011 for physicians.

“The HITECH incentives represent a significant step toward enabling healthcare that’s safer, more efficient, and better connected,” said Pamela J. Pure, president of McKesson Technology Solutions. “By greatly lowering the barrier created by cost, the stage is set to accelerate the adoption of IT, particularly among physicians, the great majority of whom still rely on paper to practice medicine.

Demonstrating the value of electronic health record interoperability in April, McKesson featured Practice Partner, its integrated electronic health record (EHR) and practice management solution, at the HIMSS09 Interoperability Showcase in Chicago.

Designed as a HIMSS Health Information Exchange (HIE)-based environment, the showcase included clinical scenarios enabled by the standards-based IHE framework and HITSP federally recognized Interoperability Specifications. It was an example of an environment where patient health information is exchanged electronically across different healthcare settings.

Physician practices of all sizes and specialties use Practice Partner software nationwide to improve productivity and enhance quality of care in physician practices. In addition, Practice Partner Patient Records is designed to support interoperability standards for improved information exchange to help providers and other healthcare professionals efficiently deliver quality patient care.

More than 50 vendors and more than 70 clinical information systems came together to build a secured HIE that supported a patient-centric clinical workflow.

For more information, see mckesson.com/practicepartner