Bush: Healthcare IT can control costs, reduce erro
Bush: Healthcare IT can control costs, reduce errors
Healthcare IT News
By Caroline Broder, Senior Editor 02/01/06
(WASHINGTON) --
President Bush during his State of the Union address Tuesday night called for greater use of electronic medical records and other healthcare information technology as part of a larger healthcare plan that includes expansion of health savings accounts and medical liability reform.
This is the third time Bush has highlighted greater use of healthcare IT to bring down medical costs and improve care in a State of the Union speech.
“We will make wider use of electronic records and other health information technology to help control costs and reduce dangerous medical errors,” Bush said.
In 2004, Bush called for most Americans to have an electronic record of their healthcare within a decade. That year, he appointed David Brailer, MD, to lead federal healthcare IT efforts and created the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Department of Health and Human Services.
The United States must face rising healthcare costs, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship and help people afford insurance, he said. Bush called for making health insurance “portable” so that workers can change jobs and keep their health insurance. He did not offer an anticipated proposal to let Americans deduct more taxes for out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Bush spent much of his speech talking about the war in Iraq, urging Congress make his tax cuts permanent and calling for alternative energy sources to oil.
In a reaction to the State of the Union speech, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said medical liability reform, expanding the use of healthcare savings accounts and promoting information technology to “get the waste, fraud and abuse” out of the healthcare system were some of his legislative priorities.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) gave the Democrats’ rebuttal of the speech. Among other criticisms of the Bush administration, Kaine said the White House has cut Medicaid funds and called the new federal Medicare drug plan “more complex, more expensive and less reliable."
Industry leaders react
Several in the healthcare IT community were quick to react to the president’s statement Tuesday night, praising the Bush administration’s commitment to the issue.
“We took it as a great success, getting the mention.” It showed that the President really is committed,” said Dave Roberts, director of public policy for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
HIMSS sent a letter to Bush last week, asking him to reiterate his call to provide EHRs for most Americans by 2014.
"We applaud the president for his leadership and recognition of the importance and value of health information technology in bringing information to the point of care --empowering both consumers and physicians," said Janet Marchibroda, chief executive officer of the eHealth Initiative and the eHealth Initiative Foundation.
However, it unclear whether the mention will translate into more federal dollars for healthcare IT projects. The White House is expected to release its fiscal year 2007 budget on Monday.
“Do I think we’ll see an enormous up tick in funding?” Marchibroada asked. “There are competing issues. It’s business as usual.”
The federal government could go a long way toward encouraging IT adoption by relaxing the Stark and anti-kickback rules that prevent hospitals from sharing technology with physicians, said Janet Dillione, chief operating officer of Siemens Medical Solutions. The government has already released proposed rules aimed at easing these regulatory barriers.
Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, said while he is encouraged by the president’s message, he would like to see the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid make a stronger push for pay-for-performance programs that would force doctors to adopt IT systems as a way to collect the necessary data on quality.
“When the federal government gets really serious, it will be when Medicare starts offering serious money by true pay for performance,” Tripathi said.
