Create an argument for or against governments role in EMR standards. Justify your argument with at least two (2) reasonable pieces of evidence for government intervention by referencing specific, recent, and relevant examples in relation to this weeks videos

The use of electronic medical records can make physicians offices more efficient, effective and improve the overall quality of patient care by making patients medical history available to any healthcare professional treating them. EMRs minimize errors, minimize retesting or ordering, maximize cost-efficiency and provide better coordination between healthcare providers. The federal government takes steps to ensure that these electronic systems are strong, secure and able to communicate with each other. The government standards are in place to promote authenticity, documentation integrity, authorship integrity, coder integrity and appropriate use of copy functionality. For these reasons alone, I am for the governments role in EMR standards.

On July 28, 2010, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its first set of EMR standards, which are designed to ensure that the systems are secure and reliable. Another key goal is to ensure that data collected by one system is compatible with data collected by another. That way, if a patient approves, health care providers can exchange the information, which will help them operate more efficiently and improve patient care (Halamka, 2010).

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is one piece of evidence for government intervention in EMR standards. Under the act, by January 1, 2014, all public and private healthcare providers and other eligible professionals were required to adopt and demonstrate meaningful use of electronic medical records (EMR) in order to maintain their existing Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement levels. Since that date, the use of electronic medical and health records has spread worldwide and shown its many benefits to health organizations everywhere (USF Health, 2020). Meaningful use of electronic health records consists of using digital medical and health records to improve care coordination, maintain privacy and security of patient health information, improve quality, safety, efficiency and reduce health disparities (USF Health, 2020).