The Center for the Advancement of Health IT
A Regional Extension Center (REC) Serving Providers in Northern and Southwestern Florida
RECs are charged with assisting primary care providers achieve Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs) and advanced Health Information Technology (HIT), including ePrescribing, exchange of data within the local healthcare community, advanced clinical reporting for quality improvement initiatives, connection to state and national registries, and more. Successful practices can apply for EHR Adoption Incentives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) that range as high as $44,000 to $64,000 per provider over a five-year period; these incentives will help to offset acquisition, implementation, and training expenses each practice will incur. But the work practices do today to automate their offices and engage EHRs is truly foundational to all that will be coming soon in the healthcare market - from Pay for Performance incentives by private payors to Patient Centered Medical Home certification. Meaningful Use is just the beginning - and there is no reason to wait to engage with your REC to begin evaluating your practice's potential.
Ready to learn more? Access the 20 minute overview below, or contact the AHT Team!
Regional Extension Centers 101
Click the icon to the right to learn about the program, its foundations, goals, and services available to help eligible providers achieve Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records! Password to open: join
AHIT Brochure - Navigating EHRs and Meaningful Use
Click the icon to the left to learn more about the AHIT Regional Extension Center program.
AHIT supports providers in 41 predominantly rural counties. Working with other applicants from Florida and with the State's Health Information Exchange Coordinating Committee (HIECC), counties across the northern tier of the state and additional predominantly rural counties along the west coast (service areas for CHCA members Manatee Rural Health Services and CHS Healthcare, among others), were chosen for the project. Our goal is to assure that the highest possible number of priority providers in these medically underserved and health professional shortage areas will receive REC services.
Congress created the Health Information Technology Extension Program for the establishment of non-profit Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers (RECs) that will offer technical assistance, guidance and information on best practices to support and accelerate health care providers’ efforts to become meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The legislation and the program's guidelines are available online.
CHCA wishes to acknowledge support from the Office of the National Coordinator, Department of Health and Human Services, Award #90RC0051/01.