Health information technology legislation is high on the list of legislative priorities for the new Democratic leaders of Congress, according to three veteran Capitol Hill staff members.
Rapid action on health IT is unlikely because new hearings will be necessary, at least in the House, said Bridgett Taylor, a health specialist for the Democratic staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “There was not a lot of open process on the health IT legislation this year,” she said.
Despite support from members of both parties, health IT bills failed to pass this year when the House and Senate could not agree on a compromise version of the legislation passed by both houses. That failure came as a bitter disappointment to many members of the health IT community.
“It’s unclear whether the legislative branch is fully supportive of the role of health IT in improving the quality of care,” said Linda Kloss, chief executive officer of the American Health Information Management Association, at an unrelated meeting earlier this week.
The issue “is ripe for bipartisan action” in the coming year, said Mark Hayes, health policy director of the Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee.
“The private sector all over the place is way ahead of the federal government on health IT” and related issues, such as pay for performance, which involves paying doctors and other health care providers more for following guidelines for quality care, Hayes added.
Taylor said health IT should go hand in hand with pay for performance.
She said Democrats are concerned about interoperability standards and privacy protections for people with e-health records. And they are not as enthusiastic as some Republicans about creating a loophole in the Stark and anti-kickback rules, as this year’s House bill would have done, she said.
In the Senate, the Finance Committee and the Health, Education and Labor Committee will have health IT high on their agendas, said Kate Leone, health policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Leone, Hayes and Taylor briefed reporters on the outlook for health legislation in 2007 at a session sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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.
