Senate Committee Conducts Hearing To Discuss Methods To Spur Nationwide Adoption Of Electronic Health Records

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Public Health;  Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 21 Jul 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Lawmakers and business and health care executives on Thursday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing discussed strategies to encourage adoption of a nationwide electronic health record system, CQ HealthBeat reports (Cooley, CQ HealthBeat, 7/17). The hearing, which included testimony from Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag and Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson, coincided with several legislative proposals aimed at creating a national EHR system that are moving through Congress (Noyes, CongressDaily, 7/17).

Orszag said that threats to withhold Medicare payments or a financial levy are efficient ways to encourage physicians to implement EHR systems. He said, "If you want to get to near universal health IT in the near future, meaning the next five years, it's got to be the stick" (CQ HealthBeat, 7/17). Orszag added that a proposal to offer federal subsidies to physicians who use health IT would benefit only the physicians that already planned to use the technology, instead of encouraging physicians who had yet to consider it (CongressDaily, 7/17). He said that while some physicians might stop providing care to Medicare beneficiaries instead of implementing health IT systems, others would prefer to invest the estimated $30,000 to establish an EHR system over the risk of losing the business of their Medicare patients. The methods used by Congress to promote the adoption of EHR systems also could include Medicaid and SCHIP, Orszag said (CQ HealthBeat, 7/17). Orszag noted that CBO is scheduled to release two reports in December that will outline Congressional policy options regarding EHRs and will address potential changes to the health care and health insurance industries.

In his testimony, Halvorson called for a comprehensive support system that would analyze data from interconnected networks that would provide guidance to physicians and help with consistent delivery of care. He also suggested implementing a separate registry for U.S. residents who do not have immediate access to integrated health IT programs (CongressDaily, 7/17). Halvorson said that providers within the Kaiser Permanente network who already have implemented health IT were experiencing "extremely good" returns as a result of the technology.

Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) warned of high costs, implementation challenges and the risk of financial losses associated with slow adoption of a national EHR system. Baucus said that opinions were mixed about the benefits to the delivery of care and the potential for savings to the health care system (CongressDaily, 7/17). CQ HealthBeat reports that committee member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) expressed objection to Orszag's suggestion to withhold Medicare payments to physicians (CQ HealthBeat, 7/17).

Please note: The Kaiser Family Foundation is not associated with the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries.

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