The Regional Extension Center Program: Helping Physicians

Many physicians face financial and organizational barriers that in-hibit their adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems. The 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act included provisions to facilitate the transition from paper to electronic records, including Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments to support the adoption and meaningful use of EHR systems. It also created the Health Information Technology Re-gional Extension Center (REC) program to ease the barriers faced by primary care physicians and rural and critical-access hospitals seeking to implement EHRs. The 60 RECs will administer individu-alized assistance to primary care practices and rural and critical-access hospitals as they implement new EHR systems or upgrade existing ones. In aggregate, the RECs aim to help 100 000 primary care physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners to ef-fectively implement EHR systems and qualify for incentive pay-ments for meaningful use. This article describes the rationale for the REC program and describes how the 60 RECs promote the meaningful use of EHR systems. Ann Intern Med. 2010;153:666-670. www.annals.or