David Harlow, JD, MPH

Arguments that the EHR-implementation incentives under the HITECH Act are unconstitutional fail for a variety of reasons.

Some pundits have written that health insurance mandates are well beyond the constitutional authority of the federal government to tax, spend, and regulate interstate commerce. Others have picked up on these arguments and applied them to the EHR-implementation incentives under the HITECH Act as well. The bottom line is that these arguments fail, for four reasons.