Senate Wants U.S. to Get Wired for Health

WASHINGTON–In the future, gathering patient medical records
could be as simple as swiping a card–eliminating the hassles of
collecting documents from physicians–under technology being
encouraged in a bill unanimously passed by the Senate.

The Wired for Health Care Quality Act brings Americans closer to
being able to carry a card or identification tag that contains all
of their patient data, insurance and medical history records
wherever they go, said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., one of the bill’s
sponsors.

“If we can wave a wand and buy gas at the pump, then we should
be able to utilize the newest technology on something even more
important like allowing patients to transfer information between
hospitals and doctors’ offices in seconds, without complicated,
wasteful paper records,” said Enzi, who is chair of the Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Supporters also say the bipartisan bill, designed to encourage
the widespread adoption of information technology in health care,
will improve patient care, reduce medical errors and save
money.

The legislation is a compromise between previous bills coming
from both sides of the floor, including from high profile Sens.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Hillary Rodham
Clinton, D-N.Y.

Some of the provisions in the bill include:
–creating the American Health Information Collaborative, a
public-private panel that would be charged with making health IT
recommendations to the Department of Health and Human
Services;
–making recommendations to identify uniform national standards to
support the widespread adoption of health IT;
— providing grants for incorporating the technology to health
profession centers, academic centers and health care providers;
and
–codifying into federal law the HHS position of National
Coordinator of Health IT.

President Bush has set a goal of having electronic health
records for most Americans in 10 years, and creating universally
accepted records and operating standards among the nation’s
fragmented health systems is a first step toward that goal. The
National Coordinator of Health IT, a position currently held by
David Brailer, would oversee creation and manage development of a
health IT infrastructure, so that with interoperability, EHRs could
be shared and read by all.

Implementing the bill, which was co-sponsored by 38 senators,
would cost $40 million in 2006 and $652 million over the 2006-2010
period, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Last month, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt announced that
contracts totaling $18.6 million had been awarded to four groups of
health care and health IT organizations to create prototypes for a
Nationwide Health Information Network architecture.

“This effort will help design an information network that will
transform our health care system resulting in higher quality, lower
costs, less hassle and better care for American consumers,” Leavitt
said.

To view the text of the bill, also known as S.1418, visit
http://thomas.loc.gov.