WASHINGTON – Several high-profile U.S. senators plan to introduce two separate healthcare bills Thursday that would encourage healthcare IT adoption and take steps toward rewarding healthcare providers that meet certain standards of care.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) are expected to sponsor one bill. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee Chairman Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) will sponsor the other. All senators involved in the bills are expected to support both pieces of legislation.

"It's a joint effort," said Craig Orfield, a spokesman for the Senate HELP committee.

The Senate HELP legislation codifies the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, led by David J. Brailer, MD. It also formalizes the American Health Information Consortium, a group HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt unveiled earlier this summer to help the healthcare industry set standards for health information exchange. In addition, it provides funds for projects that would test IT use in healthcare. The bill tracks closely with healthcare IT legislation (S. 1262) introduced earlier this month by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

The bill from the Senate Finance Committee would take the first step toward creating quality measures to reward Medicare providers based on performance. Providers that do not provide the data for the quality measures would see their Medicare payments reduced.

Legislation from both committees creates exemptions to Stark and Anti-Kickback regulations to allow healthcare providers to share IT tools with other providers.

Copies of the legislation were not available at press time.

The bills are the latest signal of a strong bipartisan congressional interest in healthcare IT issues. In the last month, senators have introduced three separate bills to encourage the adoption of electronic health records and other IT tools through grants or the adoption of standards to help health information systems communicate.

In addition, members of the U.S. Senate are exploring the possibility of a caucus that would advance legislation on healthcare IT-related bills. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who recently introduced a healthcare IT bill with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), will co-chair the group.

The Senate's interest in healthcare IT issues has been mounting in recent weeks, according to Neal Neuberger, who runs the Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics, a group that hosts congressional educational sessions on healthcare and technology. The committee chairmen's interest in healthcare IT legislation bolsters the chance for such legislation to pass, he said.

"It's a signal that they want to do something this year," he said.