Congress Must Pass Health IT Bill To Appease Public; Save Money, Lives, Columnist Writes

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 12 Sep 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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"There's no disagreement among the presidential candidates" on a "no-brainer, widely endorsed proposal to set standards for computerizing health records -- and, eventually, saving lives and lots of money," Roll Call Executive Director Morton Kondracke writes. However, "their allies in Congress are back to the same old warring ways that voters hate" and the bill "isn't assured of passage." He adds, "Energy," upon which Congress also will most likely not come to an agreement, "is a tough, complicated problem intellectually, economically and politically," but "health information technology is not."

Kondracke continues, "For more than a decade, it's been widely agreed that computerized medical records would reduce medical errors that kill up to 95,000 people a year and also save money -- $165 billion a year, according to a RAND study." According to Kondracke, "The problem is that hundreds of different IT programs have been developed without a common standard and many doctors and hospitals are afraid to invest in any one, lest it turn out to be 'Beta' when 'VHS' emerges as the national standard."

He notes that "the concept has the backing of an array of groups, including AARP, the Business Roundtable and the Service Employees International Union," adding, "If this kind of legislation doesn't get passed, what in the world can?" He writes that if presidential nominees Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) "wanted to really impress voters, they could intervene in Congress' energy deadlock and bring the warring factions together," and "make sure a health IT bill passes, too" (Kondracke, Roll Call, 9/11).

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