WASHINGTON – Many healthcare leaders have a positive eye toward President-elect Barack Obama’s nomination of former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to be the next Department of Health and Human Services secretary. They urge Daschle, if he is confirmed, to focus on healthcare IT as a pivotal part of a U.S. healthcare transformation.
Since the news broke of Daschle’s nomination on Nov. 19, many healthcare IT insiders have hailed him as a good pick for HHS secretary because of his bipartisan negotiating capability and healthcare advocacy.
H. Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, said Daschle’s book, “Critical: What We Can Do About The Health-Care Crisis,” is an indicator of his commitment to healthcare and healthcare IT.
“HIMSS believes Senator Daschle understands critical healthcare issues and how IT can be leveraged to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care,” Lieber said.
Lieber said HIMSS would work closely with the secretary-designate on securing additional funding for healthcare information technology as well as continuing current healthcare IT initiatives.
Tom Nickels, senior vice president of federal relations at the American Hospital Association said, “Sen. Daschle brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to HHS, and has a proven track record of building bipartisan consensus on some of our nation’s most difficult challenges.”
John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, said Daschle has a deep understanding of the need to increase the value of healthcare across the country by reducing costs and enhancing quality.
“He’s also been a strong advocate of ensuring access to healthcare for all,” Halamka said. “I believe the increased use of interoperable healthcare information technologies will help the new administration achieve these goals.”
Daschle was elected to the House in 1978 and served eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the Senate. He served as both majority and minority leader before he lost his re-election bid in 2004.
The Senate will review Daschle’s affiliations and any potentially conflicting connections he may have in his current position as special policy adviser to the law firm of Alston & Bird LLP in Washington D.C. Up for review will likely be his membership on the board of the Mayo Clinic and his wife, Linda Daschle’s lobbying career for the aviation industry.
To be nominated, Daschle has already cleared Obama’s stringent new lobbyist policy, which aims to keep lobby connections from tainting business in Washington.
Daschle was a close adviser to Obama throughout the presidential campaign. The New York Times reported Obama has also asked Daschle to serve as lead healthcare adviser to the White House.
Though Daschle appears to have supporters on both sides of the aisle, some have expressed doubts about his healthcare experience. A person who wished to be identified as a GOP aide said, “Aside from writing a book and working for a major DC lobbying firm, his record on healthcare is questionable at best. He voted against providing millions of seniors with a prescription drug benefit. It makes you wonder if this new administration is interested in protecting this widely popular benefit.”
Justin Barnes, board chairman of the Electronic Health Record Association warned against undoing any progress in healthcare IT advancement that has taken place under HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt.
“We have had tremendous success during the past five years in creating a strong foundation for the new administration to work from and hopefully our standards-based healthcare interoperability, privacy and security advancements and electronic health record certification process will be brought forth and emboldened,” Barnes said. “The leaders in healthcare IT believe in these processes and see first-hand how they increase patient safety, reduce costs and save lives.”
