The First Anniversary of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act: the regulatory outlook for implementation.

Since the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in February 2009, the government has released three sets of statutorily required regulations: one addressing breach notification requirements for protected health information (PHI) and two addressing Medicare and Medicaid incentives for meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). 1 These regulations build on the framework and financial support authorized under ARRA for increased use of EHRs and enhanced privacy and security provisions for PHI.