WASHINGTON – Lawmakers returning to Congress in September will continue a push for healthcare information technology legislation as a way to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient care.

Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) is expected to introduce a healthcare IT bill in September designed to encourage investment in IT and remove some of the legal barriers that hamper technology uptake. The bill also is expected to codify the several efforts to spur healthcare IT adoption that are already underway within the federal government. A spokesman for Johnson would not comment on the timing of the bill or the details of the legislation.

"Greater use of IT can dramatically improve the safety and quality of our health care system while also reducing costs," Johnson said during recent congressional hearing on healthcare IT. "I believe that a public-private approach appropriately recognizes the key roles that both the government and the private sector play in the critical area of health IT."

Johnson introduced a healthcare IT bill last year that never made it out of committee.

Johnson, chair of the House Ways and Means Health subcommittee, has introduced pay-for-performance legislation (H.R. 3617) that would provide value-based purchasing in payment for physicians' services under Medicare. The bill has 15 co-sponsors and was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Ways and Means for consideration.

In other House-related action, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI), has met with House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to stress the importance of the House passing a bill that would drive healthcare providers' adoption of technology tools and promote interoperability among healthcare IT systems, according to Michael Zamore, a spokesman for Kennedy. Kennedy and Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) have introduced healthcare IT legislation in the House. Separately, Reps. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas) and John McHugh (R-N.Y.) also introduced a healthcare IT bill earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to take up the "Wired for Health Care Quality Act." The bill (S. 1418) calls for uniform standards adoption in the federal government to help healthcare IT systems communicate. It would give hospitals and other healthcare providers grants to adopt technology, create a state loan program to help providers purchase IT and establish a quality measurement system to reward physicians for improvements in care. In addition, the bill codifies several federal healthcare IT initiatives already underway and formally established the role of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, held by David J. Brailer, MD.

A spokesman for Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), a sponsor of the legislation, said he did not know when the Senate would take up the bill for a vote. The bill also has support from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). Thus far, 29 Senators have co-sponsored the bill.

In addition, several senators, including Frist, in late July introduced a bill (S. 1503) called the "Healthy America Act of 2005." Among several provisions, the bill codifies ONCHIT as well as the American Health Information Collaborative, a public-private sector group that will advise the government on healthcare IT standards and projects to spur technology adoption in the U.S. healthcare system. The bill also calls for HHS to make grants to states to develop and implement policies that would promote the electronic exchange of health data.

Senators have introduced two other healthcare-IT related bills this year. None of the healthcare-IT related legislation before Congress has passed.