WASHINGTON – Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) is crafting healthcare IT legislation, bolstering the chances for Congress to pass a bill aimed at encouraging widespread use of technology in healthcare.

Johnson, chair of the House Ways and Means Health subcommittee, plans to introduce a bill that would allow federal HIPAA privacy and security regulations to supersede any state privacy and security laws. The federal government has announced plans to study how state privacy laws could hamper healthcare IT uptake. Although the bill's language is still being worked out, according to Thomas Leary, director of federal affairs for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the legislation also would:

• Codify the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, lead by David J. Brailer, MD;

• Codify the federal government's four request for proposals on ways to create a national health information network prototype and harmonize standards that would help healthcare IT systems communicate;

• Create and exemption to federal anti-fraud laws to allow healthcare providers to share IT tools. The government would then study the exemption's effect; and;

• Require HHS to move from ICD-9 to ICD-10 CM coding system. Groups such as the American Health Information Management Association and the American Hospital Association have argued that a move toward the ICD-10 clinical coding system would provide more accurate data that is better suited to electronic health records.

Johnson, who also is expected to introduce a pay-for-performance bill that would reward Medicare providers based on certain standards of care, will hold a hearing Wednesday on the federal government's efforts to encourage healthcare IT adoption and what Congress can do to help.

"Greater use of IT can dramatically improve the safety and quality of our health care system while also reducing costs," Johnson said in a statement. "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. Her office did not return calls for comment by press time. However, Johnson will not introduce the bill before the August congressional recess.

Johnson's bill could improve the chance that Congress could pass healthcare IT legislation this year. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee last week approved the "Wired for Health Care Quality Act," which calls for uniform standards adoption in the federal government to help healthcare IT systems communicate. The bipartisan bill (S. 1418) also would give hospitals and other healthcare providers grants to adopt technology, would create a state loan program to help providers purchase IT and would establish a quality measurement system to reward physicians for improvements in care. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) are sponsoring the bill. The bill still needs full Senate approval.

Johnson's legislation would join two other bills introduced in the House this year that promote healthcare IT use. Reps. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) introduced a healthcare IT bill in May. Michael Zamore, a spokesperson for Kennedy, said Kennedy is pleased that the Senate's Wired for Healthcare Quality Act contains many of the same concepts in the Murphy/Kennedy bill.

"We hope either the Murphy/Kennedy bill or Senate HELP serve as starting point for house consideration of the issue. They address the major factors that we need to digitize healthcare, but they are pragmatic in scope," Zamore said.

Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas) and John McHugh (R-N.Y.) also introduced a healthcare IT bill earlier this year. None of the healthcare IT legislation before Congress has passed.