What is a Regional Extension Center (REC)?

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Regional Extension Centers (RECs) were granted funding to help physicians gain access to electronic health records.

Specifically, OHIP and its RECs are offering assistance in the areas of:

• Workflow assessment: Help in planning changes to office work patterns to make EHR adoption easier and less of a hassle
• Vendor purchasing: Assistance in selecting an EHR system that is affordable to practices and works well with an individual practice's needs
• Meaningful Use: Clarification of what needs to be done to bring a practice to "meaningful use"
• EHR Incentive Payments: Guide practices to what must be done to allow them to draw down Medicare and Medicaid incentive funds for the meaningful use of a certified EHR system

Electronic Health Records ("EHRs")

Recent Federal regulations have pushed forward the movement to have all physicians start using Electronic Health Records ("EHRs") in the next 2 years. Electronic Health Records are tools to help improve the patient safety, quality, and decrease health related costs. Primary Care Physicians serving Medicare or Medicaid patients can receive up to $44,000 or $65,000 in "stimulus" funds, respectively, if they can show some "meaningful use" of such EHRs by October 1, 2011...only about a year from now!