WASHINGTON – Farzad Mostashari, MD, may be optimistic about the promise of healthcare information technology, but when he spoke April 26 at the Bipartisan Policy Center, he also warned of challenges ahead.

 

"Clearly we have a tough period ahead of us,” the new chief of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT said. “We have made great progress in the past couple years. We're hitting all our mile markers. But it’s a marathon.”

 

Mostashari, who served as deputy to the national coordinator for health IT before he was named to the post on April 8, said the ONC has been working hard to launch all the health IT programs mandated under the HITECH Act of 2009. These have included the Medicare/Medicaid EHR incentive program, regional extension centers and health IT community college training programs. Now the HITECH programs will be “moving into an intense phase of implementation," he said.

 

Mostashari said the federal government plans to allow the private marketplace to drive HIT innovation. ONC will only get involved in the private sector when needed.

 

 "We have to do the minimum government action necessary, but no less," he said.

 

The healthcare marketplace is not the most efficient, he warned. That is when it needs some government push. One example would be government support for healthcare providers in adopting electronic health records and in setting standards for their use, he said.

 

He said ONC would move forward while being pragmatic, practical, incremental, bold and flexible.

In the end, Mostashari said, “whenever there's any question about what we should do, it’s incredibly grounding to ask ourselves what’s best for the patient.”

 

Former Senators Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Bob Bennett (R-Utah), strong supporters of healthcare IT, were also on hand.

 

Daschle said the healthcare sector is the least transparent of all sectors of the U.S. economy. “If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it,” he said.

 

Bennett warned of challenges when it comes to securing EHR privacy, but said “it’s crazy not to be” in support of healthcare IT.

 

Bennett’s true test for health IT is simple: “If the cost goes down and the quality goes up, you’re using IT correctly.”