Transforming Health Care: The President’s Health Information Technology Plan

The central goal of President Bush’s Health Information Technology plan is to assure that most Americans have electronic health care records within ten years. Standardizing health records in electronic format could help address longstanding problems of preventable errors, uneven quality, and rising costs of health care in the United States.

This initiative is an expansion of efforts that have been underway at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for many years. HHS has been collaborating with the private sector and other Federal agencies to identify and endorse voluntary standards that are necessary for health information to be shared safely and securely among health care providers. This includes the development of standards for: transmitting X-rays over the Internet; transmission of electronic lab results; and electronic prescriptions.

President Bush also has requested $100 million in his FY 2005 HHS budget for demonstration projects to help test the effectiveness of health information technology and establish best practices which should be adopted widely in industry. This request is $50 million above the FY 2004 allocation. The Administration hopes that an expansion of this ongoing initiative will lead to more affordable health care, as the private sector adopts voluntary health information standards.

The Administration also will use the purchasing power of the Federal government—one of the nation’s largest buyers of health care services—to create opportunities and incentives for health care providers to use electronic records. Federal agencies providing health care services have been ordered to review their current policies and make recommendations to the President within 90 days.

A new sub-cabinet level position, the National Health Information Technology Coordinator, will oversee the development and implementation of the Administration’s Health Information Technology plan. This position will report to the Secretary of HHS, and will be charged with: guiding ongoing work on health information standards; identifying and implementing steps needed to support and encourage health information technology in the public and private health care delivery systems; and coordinating partnerships among government agencies and private sector stakeholders to speed adoption of health information technology.

For more information on any of these Administration initiatives, and how they may affect your organization, please contact us at info@techvision21.com or (202) 263-0168.