WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told members of the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday that health reform is not contingent merely upon health IT adoption, but on health IT interoperability. 

In her first appearance before a Congressional committee,  Sebelius fielded questions on health reform legislation now brewing in Congress.

She told the panel that, "just shifting our paperwork to computers won't work, unless we make it so they can talk to each other." She also expressed concern over including adequate privacy for interoperable data.

When asked by a panel member about standards development,  Sebelius was firm. "Dollars aren't going to leave (the government) until there is a platform ready to go," she said, mentioning current federal efforts to develop  interoperability standards.

The federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act has set aside $1.1 billion for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to conduct comparative effectiveness research. By necessity, a comparative effectiveness study requires the use of health IT to compare treatments across the country.

Sebelius said comparative effectiveness can help drive best practices. "We want to hightlight what we know works," she said. The federal government is prohibited by law from using comparative effectiveness research to make "Medicare cost decisions," she added.