WASHINGTON – The Senate Finance Committee health reform package, released Sept. 16, includes measures to advance healthcare IT.
The committee’s reform bill has been the most controversial and the last proposal to come out of five congressional committees that have jurisdiction over healthcare.
The Senate Finance Committee bill, “America’s Healthy Future Act,” proposed by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), has yet to pass the committee and be combined with the other versions of bills before going on for a full vote.
Among the Baucus bill provisions are healthcare IT measures that would encourage value-based purchasing for physicians, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies participating in Medicare. The bill would encourage doctors to coordinate care and reduce duplications in testing. It would create incentives for healthcare providers to improve quality of care through healthcare IT. The bill would also use healthcare IT to combat Medicare fraud and abuse.
Whatever the Baucus bill may face before Congress, it will likely enjoy support for its IT measures from President Obama.
Thomas M. Leary, senior director of federal affairs at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society said Obama’s support “reinforces the necessity for the adoption and meaningful use of healthcare IT solutions outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment and Act, and emphasizes the essential role interoperable tools will have in ensuring the quality, access, and cost effectiveness improvements the president is seeking.”
At a Sept. 16 Annual HIPAA Conference in Washington, DC, David Blumenthal, MD, the National Coordinator for Health IT called the $20 billion healthcare IT provisions passed in ARRA – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – “visionary,” saying they lay a foundation for healthcare reform. “This vision will progress and will get implemented, if I have anything to do with it,” Blumenthal said, “regardless of what happens in Congress.”
Sept. 21-25 in Washington, DC, the National Health IT Week collaborative of more than 150 partners met to raise awareness about the value of healthcare IT among industry leaders and policymakers.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), co-chairman, 21st Century Health Care Caucus said, “Imagine what we could achieve for our nation’s healthcare system by implementing even a few health information technology initiatives.”
