Broad coalition of industry, not-for-profit groups push for passage of health IT legislation

The Health IT Now! Coalition on Tuesday will release a joint letter to House and Senate members urging them to redouble efforts to pass legislation for the creation of a nationwide electronic health records system, CongressDaily reports.

In the letter, the coalition -- consisting of more than 175 medical organizations, pharmaceutical companies and data security companies, including the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Cisco Systems -- wrote, "Our organizations all share the downstream effects of our inefficient health care system, particularly rising health care costs."

According to CongressDaily, in the letter the coalition cautioned against waiting for "the uncertainty of the priorities of a new administration" to pass legislation pending in both chambers that already has wide support from Democrats and Republicans. The coalition said it believes that health information technology will spur improvements in patient care quality and access, reduce errors and cut costs. In addition, the bills include measures to offer financial incentives to health care providers who switch to a health IT system and also would provide education about health IT and offer patient privacy and data security protections.

The proposed health IT bills in the Senate and House have "rankled" privacy advocates, despite provisions to protect privacy and security, CongressDaily reports.

Future Action

House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) plans to introduce a bill this week that would use Medicare reimbursements as an incentive to encourage health care providers to adopt the new technology, according to Health IT Now! Coalition Executive Director Joel White. White said that Stark and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the subcommittee's ranking member, have a "great desire" to facilitate passage of health IT legislation. White said that while the Medicare proposal will be a challenge, it is "helpful as a financing mechanism but from a processing standpoint has not been examined" by provider groups.

Former Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), a co-chair of the coalition, said successful passage of health IT legislation in the next congressional session has "a 50-50 shot ... because the hurdles are high and it's easy for Congress to get bogged down in the ancillary [issues]" (Noyes, CongressDaily, 9/9).