For the second year in a row, Congress may not grant the funding that President Bush requested for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT).
Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee approved an ONCHIT budget for fiscal 2007 of $63.2 million, $52.6 million less than the Bush administration’s request of $115.8 million. The Senate also approved a $50 million health IT funding line in the budget of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
The House approved an ONCHIT budget of $98 million in its version and included an additional $50 million for health IT in the AHRQ budget.
The Senate bill includes $2 million in funds specifically earmarked for development and testing of a medical disaster response electronic health record.
For fiscal 2006, Bush requested $125 million for ONCHIT and AHRQ but received only $111.7 million from both budget lines and an additional $18.9 million for health IT from the Public Health Service Act funding line.
ONCHIT, which Dr. David Brailer led until he resigned earlier this year, has led the Department of Health and Human Services’ efforts to develop EHR standards and provide federal funds for prototype National Health Information Network architectures.
A congressional conference will determine final fiscal 2007 funding for ONCHIT later this year.
Government Health IT presents Liesa Jo Jenkins, executive director of CareSpark, in this recent eSeminar, where she shared her experiences and insight into building a health information exchange that enhances community health, rewards regional collaboration and drives economic progress.
