An advocate group urged a federal advisory commission Jan. 25 to endorse the use of electronic health records (EHRs) to help lower burgeoning Medicaid costs.
James Frogue, state project director of the Center for Health Transformation in Washington, D.C., told the Medicaid Commission that “technologies are available that can deliver markedly better care at a fraction of the cost.” He was referring to EHRs, e-prescribing and telemedicine.
In Tennessee, Frogue said, EHR use for 1.1 million people in the TennCare program “is expected to greatly enhance the coordination of care and cut down severely on waste, fraud and abuse to the extent that savings of hundreds of million of dollar per year are entirely possible.”
The state governments in Kentucky, Missouri, Florida and Iowa are also including health information technology initiatives in their Medicaid reform programs, Frogue said.
Former Maine Gov. Angus King, co-chairman of the commission, responded by asking how policy-makers can ensure that states use EHRs. Frogue said the federal government should clarify the technical standards to make EHRs more attractive to doctors and hospitals.
Frogue also praised states for using the Internet to publish information about price and quality of treatments and drugs. He said Florida’s Web sites for those purposes are “a treasure trove of information on hospital quality and prescription drug prices,” adding that “each site costs only about $200,000 per year to run, so it is eminently affordable for any state to do the same.”
He recommended other measures, too, including more wellness and disease management programs. He added that Medicaid recipients should be able to choose care providers and insurance plans.
The Center for Health Transformation, founded by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, will launch a Web site to showcase states’ achievements in improving their Medicaid programs, Frogue said.
The Medicaid Commission is seeking ways to ensure the long-term sustainability of Medicaid. It is due to report to the Department of Health and Human Services by the end of the year.
Joy Johnson Wilson, a commission member and health policy director for the National Council of State Legislatures, told her fellow commissioners that education is still the No. 1 item among state government expenses, but “Medicaid is coming in as a close second or third in most states.”
States have a limited number of strategies available to them for holding down the cost of the safety-net health program, she said. Medicaid is jointly funded by federal and state governments.
From the battlefield to the home front: Managing medical data
Government Health IT presents Col. Claude Hines Jr., program manager for the Defense Health Information Management System, in this recent InSight eSeminar. Col. Hines discusses the health information technology and tactical challenges faced by the military medical community in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of conflict. In doing so, he describes the current information technology solutions for transferring clinical data between battlefield care givers to health care personnel at military treatment facilities worldwide.
