HITECH Evaluation Reports

HITECH Global Evaluation Reports

These summaries support the global assessment by synthesizing in one place on selected statistics and activity reports relating to implementation of HITECH. It is developed quarterly and reflects information made available from January 2011 onwards. The list of activities included in these reports are not meant to be exhaustive but to reflect a subset of reports and activities captured by reports on the ONC or CMS web site.

Regional Extension Centers (REC) Evaluation Reports

Evaluation of the Regional Extension Center Program: Final Report [PDF - 1.7 MB]

Nine Regional Extension Centers profiled in interim evaluation report [PDF - 590 KB] - March 2014

Methods Used by Regional Extension Centers (RECs) to Support Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs): Two Case Studies [PDF - 990KB]

These issue briefs explore how local context affects HITECH program implementation as well as providers’ incentives and ability to achieve Meaningful Use (MU). These briefs identify the influence that state governments and policies, local grantees charged with implementing particular HITECH programs, health care market and community characteristics, and current health care reform efforts are having on providers’ incentives and ability to meaningfully use EHRs and qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.

  • Round 1 Issue Brief [PDF – 646KB]: Focuses on Stage 1 MU readiness in four diverse regions—Seattle, WA, Lubbock, TX, New Haven, CT, and Topeka, KS— as of late 2012.
  • Round 2 Issue Brief [PDF – 745 KB]: Focuses on Stage 2 MU readiness in four regions with relatively high EHR adoption rates—Worcester, MA, Macon, GA, Milwaukee, WI, and Sacramento, CA— as of late 2013.

Reports from Evaluation of the State HIE Program

The State HIE Cooperative Agreement Program funds states’ efforts to rapidly build capacity for exchanging health information across the health care system both within and across states. Awardees are responsible for increasing connectivity and enabling patient-centric information flow to improve the quality and efficiency of care. ONC funded NORC at the University of Chicago to conduct a multi-year program evaluation. These research reports and case studies focus on understanding the implementation of the program and emerging approaches for enabling HIE. 

In February, 2011, ONC awarded ten Challenge Grants intended to encourage breakthrough innovations for HIE that can be leveraged widely to support nationwide health information exchange and interoperability. Four of those awards went to Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma to develop solution and best practices to improve long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) transitions. This mid-point check-in identifies the common strategies and approaches the grantees have leverage to improve transitions of care to and from LTPAC providers including: common processes and appropriate connection points for clinical information transfer between hospitals and LTPAC providers; recommendations for hospital and LTPAC provider data needs; strategies to promote the use of standards based technology to create, transmit and view clinical documents of relevance to LTPAC and approaches to engage LTPAC providers where they are today across the health IT adoption spectrum (from high adoption to no adoption).

Reports on Health IT Workforce Development Program

ONC's Workforce Development Program's primary goal is to train a new workforce of health IT professionals who will be ready to help providers implement and maintain electronic health records to improve health-care quality, safety, and cost-efficiency. In support of the Workforce Development Program, ONC funded NORC at the University of Chicago (NORC) to perform an independent program evaluation. These research briefs and reports describe the grantees' implementation efforts using data from surveys, focus groups, and interviews with students and other key stakeholders involved with the program. The briefs and reports explore the funded colleges’ approaches to integrating evolving and newly developed curricula, recruiting and training faculty and prospective students, and coordinating among the four grant programs. Additionally, these briefs synthesize key programmatic themes, and identify program challenges and successes to date.

Beacon Community Reports

Disparity Reports

This collection of case studies highlights nine community-based programs using health IT to address the needs of populations with documented disparities in access, quality of care, and outcomes. Each case study discusses the type of intervention used and the providers and populations involved, providing detail on stakeholders' experience adopting and using various health IT solutions to improve health care delivery and outcomes for vulnerable groups.

*These reports were completed by NORC at the University of Chicago under contract to ONC. The findings and conclusions of this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of ONC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.