EHR Incentives, Compliance, and Operations

This unit examines federal and state incentive programs for electronic health record (EHR) adoption, regulatory and security requirements, and the operational business processes that support clinical care. Students explore meaningful use criteria, privacy and compliance laws, revenue cycle functions, and nursing workflow and technology to connect policy to day-to-day health informatics practice.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze federal and state EHR incentive programs (including ARRA, Medicaid, and Medicare) and determine provider or hospital eligibility and funding pathways for specified case scenarios
• Evaluate Meaningful Use stages and proposed objectives to assess how they impact clinical workflows, documentation requirements, and patient-facing technologies like personal health records
• Apply regulatory and security standards (e.g., HIPAA, PCI-DSS, state breach laws, Sarbanes–Oxley) to recommend compliance controls and EHR implementation practices for a given organizational scenario
• Demonstrate the ability to map and optimize operational processes — including medical practice workflows, revenue cycle management, coding and billing, claims processing, and nursing technology integration — and propose technology solutions that improve patient impact and staff efficiency