Healthcare IT News - January 2008 - (Page 26) 26 Healthcare IT News s January 2008 www.HealthcareITNews.com he Chicago Tribune recently published a It is not my intent to discuss the merits of column “Health Reforms Missing the government provided healthcare, but I do find Target” by Jim Jaffe, a vice president of the the analysis of mandates intriguing. Is there Center for the Advancement of Health.1 He some level of compliance beyond which mannoted many of the presidential dates do not work? Why do we candidates of both parties are STANDARDS need mandates to “do the right advocating mandatory health thing?” Just how effective are insurance as a means of achievmandates within healthcare and ing universal coverage and betHIT? And how much are we ter healthcare for all. Although depending on Washington manthe proposals differ in details, dates to drive our markets? by Ed Larsen they are all based on the premOf course, HIPAA immediise that through mandates on both insurers ately comes to mind as a prototype of HIT and consumers and with proper subsidies, mandates. According to the Summer 2006 we can extend insurance coverage and hence HIPAA Compliance Survey sponsored by healthcare to all Americans. HIMSS and Phoenix Health Systems, both Jaffe makes two points. First, having health providers and payors reported just over 70 perinsurance does not insure better healthcare for cent compliance with the required transactions many reasons, including individual choices and and code sets. And less than half were conthe actual effectiveness of the healthcare sys- ducting all required transactions. tem. Second, Jaffe points out mandatory health HIPAA's Administrative Simplification rules insurance is unlikely to result in universal cover- were adopted based on the premise enforcing age. He uses the examples of mandatory auto standardized transactions, aka interoperability, insurance and income tax compliance rates. would save providers and payors significant Approximately 15 percent of the population dollars. They just needed a mandate to “do the drives without insurance and fails to file income right thing.” Yet according to the same HIPAA taxes. This is virtually the same percentage of Compliance Survey, roughly a quarter of the population without health insurance–the providers and payors had not found any ROI, target of so much political angst. Each of these whereas less than five percent found a positive mandatory programs has its own reasons for ROI. More telling may have been the number failing to include the last 15 percent. Jaffe sug- of entities that had not even bothered to try to gests a solution to universal coverage is simply measure a ROI. Where did the savings go? for the government to provide all with basic What do the 15 percent rule and our HIPAA care and let those who want more pay for it. experience tell us about potential HIT man- T The Case Against Mandates INSIGHT dates, such as e-prescribing and the required use of recognized standards and certified EHR systems? What do they suggest about mandating accommodation of personal health records within health information exchanges? We, as an industry, have spent a lot of time over the last few years seeking help from Washington to “do the right thing.” The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) have funded numerous pilot projects and incentives-based approaches involving HIT to improve quality and transparency. As we have frequently discussed, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has set in motion a series of parallel initiatives to advance HIT through voluntary partnership with the private sector. Yet recently, we have seen evidence of impatience, particularly from Congress and some special interests, of these voluntary efforts. In this election year, we may see even more talk of mandates, and we might want to exercise a certain amount of caution in signing on. s Ed Larsen is an independent strategy consultant who tracks interoperability standards for HIMSS. For the full article, go to Standards Insight on the HIMSS Member start page. Comments or questions can be sent to erlarsen@erlinc.com. 1. http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/pr intedition/friday/chi-oped1207insuredec07,0,3219544.story PUBLICATIONS STAFF VICE PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS Fran Perveiler MANAGER, PUBLICATIONS Nancy Vitucci SENIOR MANAGER CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS Joyce Lofstrom SENIOR MANAGER PUBLIC POLICY COMMUNICATIONS Sharolyn Rosier Hyson SENIOR EDITOR Matt Schlossberg COORDINATOR, COMMUNICATIONS Cari McLean BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR John Wade, FCHIME, FHIMSS Vice President/Chief Information Officer Saint Luke’s Health System VICE CHAIR Victoria Bradley, DNP, RN, FHIMSS Director of Patient Information University of Kentucky HealthCare CHAIR ELECT Charles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSS Director, Information Systems/Chief Information Officer Good Samaritan Hospital VICE CHAIR ELECT Recap of 1st Session of 110th US Congress T he 1st Session of the 110th US Congress began on Jan. 3, 2007, with Democrats controlling a majority in both the US House and Senate for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) became the first female Speaker of the House. Also, for the first time, a Muslim and Buddhist became members of the US House of Representatives. The session began with members debating initiatives such as the Democrats' 100-Hour Plan and the Iraq War troop surge. Following President George W. Bush's 2007 State of the Union address where he mentioned HIT for the fourth year running, Congress quickly tried to get down to business. Since January, 92 separate pieces of HIT or HIMSS-tracked legislation have been introduced, including 27 pieces introduced into the House of Representatives and 45 pieces of legislation introduced in the Senate. Of these 92 pieces of legislation, none has been passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by President Bush. Key HIT legislation from this 1st Session of the 110th Congress included: • H.R. 1467 (10,000 Trained by 2010 Act) proposes to spend $100 million to train 10,000 HIT workers by the year 2010 and was passed by the House. • H.R. 2406 (National Institute of Standards and Technology Healthcare Information Enterprise Act) proposes to include NIST in federal government HIT collaborative efforts; this legislation was passed by the House Science and Technology Committee. • S. 1693 (Wired for Health Care Quality Act) proposes codification of the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT and other minor issues. While the legislation has been marked up and passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, it has not been passed by the full Senate. • H.R. 3800 (Promoting Health IT Act), the companion bill for S. 1693, has not had any hearings to date. Despite this lack of progress, HIMSS has been very active representing the Society's members. Since July, more than 73 separate meetings on Capitol Hill with key congressional members and aides and 47 meetings with Executive Branch officials have been held. In addition, HIMSS sponsored an HIT Forum for the Congressional Black Caucus and an HIT Solutions Showcase as part of Liz Johnson, FHIMSS Vice President, Applied Clinical Informatics Tenet Healthcare Corp. Margret Amatayakul, RHIA, CHPS, FHIMSS President, Margaret A. Consulting, LLC Barry Chaiken, MD, FHIMSS Associate Chief Medical Officer, BearingPoint Inc. Maj. John H. Daniels, FACHE, CPHIMS, CHPS, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer U.S. Air Force Academy Hospital John Hansmann, FHIMSS Regional Manager, Management Engineering Intermountain Health Care C. Martin Harris, MD, MBA, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer and Chairman Information Technology Division Executive Director, eCleveland Clinic The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Joy G. Keeler, MBA Principal Health Information Technology, The MITRE Corp. Jay Srini, FHIMSS Vice President, Emerging Technologies University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Jonathan M. Teich, MD, PhD, FHIMSS Chief Medical Informatics Officer Elsevier Health Sciences PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER H. Stephen Lieber, CAE HIMSS ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS National Health IT Week in June 2007. In September 2007, HIMSS sponsored a Public Policy Forum to allow the major 2008 presidential campaigns to discuss their HIT platforms and to inform HIMSS members about key political trends involving HIT. In 2008, HIMSS work will continue to increase as the upcoming elections draw closer. HIMSS' goal is to pass HIT legislation during Congress' 2nd Session and to continue to work in a nonpartisan and collaborative fashion to transform healthcare using HIT. To learn more and become involved with the Society's advocacy and public policy efforts, visit www.himss.org/advocacy. s New book explores lessons learned from A. John Blair, III, MD President and CEO, Taconic IPA Steve Fox Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP Miriam Paramore Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Business Development Integra Professional Services Sunny Sanyal Chief Operating Officer McKesson Provider Technologies ervice on a HIMSS Committee is an excellent opportunity for professional development, networking and active engagement. The call for volunteers willing to serve on a committee for the 2008-09 fiscal year is now open. An electronic application, available at www.himss.org/committees, is now open through March 7. Committee participation is open to all individuals and corporate HIMSS members who are not serving in other leadership positions within the Society and have been S HIMSS Call for Committee Applications Now Open a member for at least the past 12 consecutive months. HIMSS has a number of committees seeking new volunteers, ranging from settings such as ambulatory and enterprise, and topics such as privacy and security, personal health records, advocacy and public policy, patient safety and quality outcomes, and healthcare informati http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/chi-oped1207insuredec07,0,3219544.story http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/friday/chi-oped1207insuredec07,0,3219544.story http://www.himss.org/advocacy http://www.himss.org/committees http://www.himss.org/committees http://www.himss.org/bookstore
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