WASHINGTON – Some of the country’s top CEOs are urging Congress to include healthcare IT as part of the economic stimulus plan.

Modernizing the nation’s healthcare infrastructure would drive down costs, boost efficiency and health outcomes and create some 200,000 jobs, plus thousands of indirect jobs, said Verizon Communications Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg, who chairs the consumer health and retirement initiative for the Business Roundtable.

“The fact is, we just can’t wait any longer for health IT,” Seidenberg said last month at a news briefing.

“Health IT equals new jobs for American workers,” said Business Roundtable President John Castellani.

He said the economic stimulus legislation under discussion calls for about $20 billion for healthcare information technology. He added that the investment would have a guaranteed return.

Seidenberg also called for tough privacy measures as well as interoperability standards.

“Hospitals and clinics in Kentucky need to talk to their counterparts in Florida and Illinois seamlessly,” he said.

The Business Roundtable, a group of about 160 CEOs of leading U.S. companies, has regularly come out in support of healthcare IT. Last September it called on Congress for legislation that would provide incentives for electronic health record systems, citing statistics that widespread adoption could save $165 billion a year on healthcare costs.

Castellani noted the roundtable is made up of CEOs of companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and that the companies provide workplace health coverage for more than 35 million Americans.