American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the HITECH Act recently celebrated their second anniversary since they were signed into law by President Obama. It has only been one year since the law became effective, but Uncle Sam means business. Health Information Management (HIM) and Information Technologies (IT) departments in the Healthcare Provider industry now have increased privacy, security, reporting, compliance and remediation requirements. CFOs are struggling with how to fund these requirements. Adoption of new Electronic Health Records (EHR) technology does offer substantial financial incentives through 2016.

It has been called the present day “moon launch” as the Federal appropriations funding the program match the scale of those for the original moon launch. Failure to adopt and comply can also mean financial penalties. Violations of HIPAA regulations can lead to fines, penalties and even criminal convictions with prison sentences. Delays and failure are no longer tolerated outcomes. This paper examines some aspects of the state of the USA’s HIT (Health IT) with respect to security.

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