On February 17, 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was signed into law. Ever since, healthcare providers including chiropractors have been adopting EHR systems in order to meet meaningful use requirements and gain incentives.

The federal government has the ultimate say in whether an EHR product is certified under the incentive program. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information (ONC) provided a "Certified HIT Product List" several years ago.

The meaningful use criteria encompasses 15 core objectives and 10 menu set objectives. Chiropractors must meet all 15 of the core objective and five of the 10 menu set objectives in order to qualify for incentive payments. Out of the menu set criteria, medical providers must meet one of the two public health initiatives, which includes either sending electronic records to immunization registries or providing electronic syndromic surveillance information to population health facilities.

In order to receive an incentive payment for using chiropractic EHR software, a doctor of chiropractic must first register in the Medicare PECOS program to participate. All medical providers that participate in the program from the very beginning can anticipate receiving up to $44,000 in incentives over five years. This program allows medical practitioners to gain back 75 percent of their allowed Medicare charges.

From 2012 to 2016, chiropractors will have to meet meaningful use requirements for a minimum of one year before earning incentive payments. The last time to receive incentive payments will be in the year 2016.

Chiropractors looking to gain incentives and decrease healthcare costs simultaneously should consider adopting web-based medical software, which saves on installation expenses. Affordable EHR software on a cloud platform is a great device for managing chiropractic workflow.