Spared large cuts, IT stakeholders will lobby to restore funding

The Senate's compromise economic stimulus package has preserved much of the original measure's investments and incentives to spur adoption of electronic health records, although some stakeholders will still fight to restore cuts.

Before the approximately $100 billion in rollbacks offered by Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, the Appropriations Committee estimated the stimulus included $23.9 billion for health information technology. Now that number is more like $21 billion, including $18 billion for Medicare and Medicaid incentives.

The compromise, slated for a final vote today, left in $3 billion of the original $5 billion in discretionary funds for the HHS health IT coordination office. The deal caps at $1.5 million the amount a critical access hospital can receive, which the Finance Committee believes will save about $2 billion.

"These sound investments will pay dividends in the future," Finance Chairman Max Baucus said on the floor Monday. "They would reduce healthcare costs and improve health care quality... [and would] help patients to make better decisions about their healthcare," he said.

Not everyone agreed with Baucus' sentiment. "Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war," Information Technology Industry Council lobbyist Ralph Hellman said. "We want to see the Senate pass this agreement and we will work during the negotiations this week to restore some of these savings."

Baucus lauded the inclusion of largely technical corrections by Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ranking member Michael Enzi that allows the work of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology to continue.

The nonprofit has a multiyear HHS contract to create prototypes and evaluate certification criteria for e-health records and the networks through which they operate. About 85 percent of hospitals in the contracting phase of an IT acquisition have signed with a CCHIT-approved vendor, according to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Enzi's amendment will codify the work of the National E-Health Collaborative, launched last month to replace a 2005 public-private project tasked with advising HHS on how to advance health IT.

Enzi's amendment ensures membership of planned health IT standards and policy committees are balanced so no single sector has too much influence and specifies an appointment process for the policy committee.

American Hospital Association Executive Vice President Rick Pollack said he hoped conferees would include language to allow nonacute facilities like rehabilitation hospitals eligible for funds.