Modern Healthcare (7/4, Zigmond, Subscription Publication) reported, “Behavioral healthcare groups have inched a little closer to their goal of ensuring that the country’s mental-healthcare facilities are eligible for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s meaningful-use incentives.” Just “before leaving for this week’s July 4 recess, Reps. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) introduced the Behavioral Health Information Technology Act of 2012, which would include behavioral health [professionals] — such as psychiatric hospitals, mental-health and substance-abuse professionals, community mental-health centers, and inpatient or outpatient substance abuse treatment facilities — in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health, or HITECH, Act that was enacted as part of the Recovery Act in 2009.” Last year, “Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced similar legislation in the Senate.”
