The Office for the National Coordinator of Health IT issued a progress report to Congress as required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The report updates Congress on the adoption of health information technology, efforts to facilitate adoption and exchange of electronic health information, and barriers to adoption and exchange of electronic health information.
The report states that as of 2012, 72% of office-based physicians had adopted an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Physicians have achieved a 50% adoption rate for 12 out of the 15 core objectives for Stage 1 of the Meaningful Use Program. 44% of non-federal acute care hospitals had adopted a basic EHR system as of 2012. The reported noted several barriers to the adoption of health IT, including the cost of the EHR systems, maintenance costs, technical support, and resistance by practitioners.
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