Thursday, May 3, 2012

Senate panel explores healthcare IT issues for stimulus package

WASHINGTON – Panelists at a Thursday hearing on healthcare funding in an economic stimulus package agreed that IT won't be the silver bullet that everyone hopes for, but could be an effective tool if used properly.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) called a hearing to explore what policy measures, if any, should be included with healthcare IT funding as part of the economic stimulus package.

Mikulski admitted she has been skeptical about handing over immediate healthcare IT funding, for fear of acting in haste and producing a "techno-boondogle."

However, she said, she supports President-elect Barack Obama's commitment to healthcare IT as part of an economic stimulus package and healthcare reform plan. She held the hearing to allow for debate in advance of the vote on a stimulus bill, now being negotiated in Congress.

The way things are passed, she said, is with polite debate. Hearings are included in that process.

Panelists, which included representatives of private industry, government oversight agencies and non-profits, unanimously said that healthcare IT is merely a tool that, if used properly, can reduce healthcare costs and save lives.

Without the ability to study the data and measure performance, healthcare IT's potential will be wasted, they said. Most panelists encouraged incentives to providers who use healthcare IT data to provide better care, not just incentives for adopting HIT.

Jack Cochran, MD, executive director of the Oakland, Calif.-based Permanente Federation, which represents the national interests of Kaiser Permanente's eight medical groups, said implementing the technology is the first step.

"It is much harder to translate the data. It's not just about digitizing the technology," he said. "You have to use it to give better care. For that you need physician buy-in and leadership."

The second theme expressed by panelists was concern about privacy. Physicians and patients will not support the transition unless privacy is ensured, they said.

Peter Neupert, vice president of Microsoft Health Solutions, endorsed a solution that puts the patient as the main custodian of his or her health data. He said healthcare data stored by Microsoft HealthVault - or some other data storage provider - can ensure that privacy is maintained and the patient can chose where to allow access to that data.

Neupert said advancing healthcare IT need not be difficult at first. "We already have the data needed to get going," he said. Lab work, images and electronic prescriptions provide a good place to start.

Valerie Melvin, Director of Information Technology at the Government Accounting Office, recommended federal requirements to measure progress on healthcare IT advancement.

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