• www.FederalRegister.gov
• http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/E9-31216.htm

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

What is ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) is an economic stimulus bill created to help the United States economy recover from an economic downturn that began in late 2007. Congress enacted ARRA February 17, 2009.

ARRA allocates $787 billion to fund tax cuts and supplements to social welfare programs as well as increased spending for education, health care, infrastructure and the energy sector.

According to ARRA's statement of purpose, it was developed to:

• To preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery.
• To assist those most impacted by the recession.
• To provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health.
• To invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits.
• To stabilize State and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases.

Guidance to Practices for Achieving Meaningful Use

Rx Business Solutions understands that all of the activity surrounding meaningful use is daunting at best. We also respect the limited time that practices have available to fully understand all of the ins and outs of what will be required of them. With this in mind, Rx Business Solutions offers a three-prong strategy throughout 2010 and beyond to help you better understand:

• Education on required product functionality through focused documentation guides, videos, and webinars
• Education on suggested workflows through documentation guides, videos, webinars, and our Business Analysis services
• Interactive assessment tool that you can use to gauge your practice's readiness, and suggested next steps

Rx Business Solutions will work diligently to follow the decisions from CMS and their final verdicts, and we will subsequently work with all of our practices to help them prepare as they become meaningful users of our EHR.