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Health IT policy recap

EHR Connection, June 22, 2005

Last week's policy roundup:

  1. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Bill Frist (R-TN) introduced a new medical records bill Thursday that would help the healthcare community move away from paper records through a national health IT network, reports the Associated Press.

    The bill, called "The Health Technology to Enhance Quality Act of 2005," would authorize $125 million per year for five years in grants to implement regional or local health information networks to improve quality and efficiency. It would create a current federal law exemption to allow providers and insurers to supply health IT equipment to physicians to accomplish certain goals, such as reducing medical errors, lowering costs, or improving quality. Also, the bill would call for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a "value-based purchasing pilot program" under Medicare to encourage reporting of quality data and create a performance-based payment system for providers. HHS could expand the purchasing program nationwide after two years.

    The two senators said they believe the bill is necessary to prevent life-threatening mistakes by making files electronically accessible in an age where people can retrieve most other information easily on the Internet. The senators added that keeping the records safe and confidential is a priority of the new bill.

  2. Senate Bill 1227, introduced last Monday would authorize $4.05 billion in grants to providers over five years to implement HIT, Health Data Management reports. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced the bill, which would allow Medicare payments to balance IT costs and providers to deduct IT purchases from federal taxes.

    The legislation would provide $1.25 billion to hospitals and $2 billion to physician groups between fiscal years 2006 and 2010, Modern Healthcare reports. Other provider groups also could apply for the grants.

    If passed, the HHS secretary would report to Congress annually, throughout the duration of the program, to explain how the funds were being used and how the legislation is affecting healthcare.

  3. Senate Bill 1223 from Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) would authorize the government to adopt standards that promote interoperability of information systems within two years of adoption.

    The legislation would also create the Office of Health Information Technology within the executive office of the president. Duties of the office would be similar to those of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Go to http://thomas.loc.gov for more information about HIT legislation.

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