Healthcare IT News - December 2008 - (Page 28)

28 The HIMSS Insider s December 2008 www.himss.org The Obama Healthcare Reform Plan We now know Barack Obama will be the year for five years on health IT initiatives. next president and he will set a different direcIn order to save money with health IT, two tion for healthcare reform from that of the conditions are necessary: front–end investcurrent administration. The broad outlines of ments must be made and the return on these the Obama health plan include strengthening investments must be aligned. A corollary is it is employer-based health insurance, while assur- very hard to gain support for hard-dollar ing those not covered can find investments today on the promise affordable plans. There are many STANDARDS of future cost avoidance, particudetails yet to be developed or larly when economic conditions discovered, particularly concernare difficult. ing costs. There are estimates the The upfront capital costs of Obama plan will increase annual fully adopting interoperable healthcare spending from $60 EHR systems and health inforby Ed Larsen billion to more than $100 billion mation exchanges have been estiover baseline trends. To offset the increased mated at $60 billion to $110 billion; some esticosts, President-elect Obama has proposed mates are even higher, up to $200 billion. raising all taxes on the upper 1 to 5 percent of Annual operating costs add $20 billion to $35 tax payers; this is expected to raise $400 billion billion. If capital investments are amortized over 10 years. Of course, these estimates were over five years, incremental health IT spending made before our current financial meltdown would be approximately $35 billion to $65 biland its spread to the economy. lion per year, one to two times the current Other initiatives expected to go forward health IT spending levels. When put together include reducing payments for Medicare with expected savings, one might infer net savAdvantage to the same per-capita level as tradi- ings of $50 billion to $100 billion per year, or tional Medicare and authorizing CMS to use its 2.5 to 5 percent of current healthcare spendpurchasing leverage to negotiate prescription ing. It seems like a “no brainer”–except for a drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. few loose ends. The final major cost-savings proposal is We know the steps necessary to align incenbased on the widespread adoption of health IT tives. Consumers, payors and secondary users to reduce administrative costs, eliminate waste must step up and pay providers for saving and duplication and improve efficiency. This is money for these stakeholders. Moreover, there expected to save from $50 billion to as much as are two streams of investment: health infor$150 billion per year. To realize these savings, mation exchange and networking infrastrucObama has proposed spending $10 billion per ture, and the provider or edge EHR systems. INSIGHT Aligning investment, costs and returns are different for each. Infrastructure should be a public good paid for by and from the returns to primary stakeholders. Like the Canadian Health Infoway, the nationwide health information exchanges, the HIEs adhering to harmonized standards and agreements, must be in place in order to enable participants to realize the benefits of interoperability. This should be the first priority of federal investment, not buying EHR systems for physicians. The provider systems should be funded through reimbursement incentives that pay providers for using the technology to coordinate and transform care. That is, there must be a business case for providers to use EHR systems and share data with each other and secondary users. If there is a clear business case for providers to share information, then the economics fall into place. Subsidizing IT acquisition without providing clinical practice standards and business cases will not realize the expected benefits. If well targeted, Obama's commitment of $10 billion a year could produce adoption of interoperable systems within a transformed care system over a five- or 10-year period. s 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 Charles E. Christian, FCHIME, FHIMSS Director, Information Systems/ Chief Information Officer Good Samaritan Hospital VICE CHAIR Liz Johnson, RN, MSN, FHIMSS Vice President, Applied Clinical Informatics Tenet Healthcare Corp. CHAIR ELECT Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH, FHIMSS Chief Medical Officer DocsNetwork, Ltd. VICE CHAIR ELECT Liz Johnson, RN, MSN, FHIMSS Vice President, Applied Clinical Informatics Tenet Healthcare Corp. John H. Daniels, FACHE, CPHIMS, CHPS, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer Evolvent Technologies Inc. David Finn Vice President/Chief Information Officer/ Privacy and Information Security Officer Texas Children's Hospital C. Martin Harris, MD, MBA, FHIMSS Chief Information Officer and Chairman, IT Division The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Executive Director eCleveland Clinic Joy G. Keeler, MBA, FHIMSS Principal Health Information Technology The MITRE Corp. Holly D. Miller, MD, MBA, FHIMSS Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer University Hospitals Carol R. Selvey, MHSA, FHIMSS Principal The Revere Group Jay Srini, FHIMSS Chief Innovation Officer UPMC Insurance Services Division Jonathan M. Teich, MD, PhD, FHIMSS Chief Medical Informatics Officer Elsevier Health Sciences Charlene S. Underwood, MBA, FHIMSS Director, Government and Industry Affairs Siemens Medical Solutions ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS For the complete article, including references, see the December Standards Insight on the HIMSS Member Center Web page. Ed Larsen is an independent strategy consultant who tracks interoperability standards for HIMSS. Comments or questions can be sent to erlarsen@erlinc.com. HIMSS explores 2008 election results and implications for health IT As this exciting election year comes to a close, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has been elected the 44th president and Democrats have retained a majority in the U.S. Congress. As a bipartisan issue among members of Congress, health IT will continue to play a leading role in policy to transform the delivery of healthcare in the United States. HIMSS has released an article offering insights into the election results with key highlights and implications for 2009. The article, which is available online at www.himss.org/election08, explores results from the Presidential, Congressional and State Legislative races, in addition to noting where health IT legislation may be headed in 2009 with a new administration. s HIMSS delegation travels to India BY M. JANE MARKLEY, RN, MEd, FACHE, PMP This past March, 15 professionals from across the United States representing HIMSS spent 10 days visiting India as a part of the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program (www.peopletopeople.com). People to People International was founded in 1956 by President Eisenhower to bring ordinary people from different nations together to communicate with one another. Their ambassadorial programs provide foreign educational travel experiences, while allowing the delegates an opportunity to meet and exchange information with their peers in other parts of the world. Members of the HIMSS delegation of the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program pose in Agra, India, near the Taj Mahal Our group consisted of administrators, nurses, strategists, informaticists, a physician and a university professor who brought extremely varied health information management backgrounds and experiences. On our first evening, we were hosted at a public/private partnership briefing, followed by a reception and buffet, where we met a veritable “who's who” of people from India's healthcare and informatics industries. Our visit included back-to-back meetings and visits to both public and private institutions in and between New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. Understanding the shear vastness of the Indian healthcare system, the challenges they face, their methods for dealing with those challenges and the successes they have achieved was a steep learning curve. Their use of informatics is similarly fraught with data and standardization issues we face in the United States. Like us, they are working to better implement an integrated health record for their people. Fascinating to see was their successful use of handhelds at the local village level, where there is limited infrastructure support, and even the poorest public hospital shared with us their extensive use of telemedicine. We saw a variety of healthcare information management tools at Joint Commission International-accredited facilities, local village one-room clinics and public hospitals with 2,500 beds and diseases we had only read about. A trip of a lifetime, this experience heightened our awareness of medical informatics in India, their delivery of healthcare and the challenges they face. We learned much as individuals, being exposed to medical tourism and developing strong professional relationships. We believe we left them with a better understanding of HIMSS and the role we play in healthcare informatics within the United States. s Ms. M. Jane Markley, a member of HIMSS and CARING, served 27 years in the U.S. Navy in a variety of clinical and administrative positions worldwide. Following the Navy, she was vice president for program management at Science Applications International Corp., initially managing healthcare contracts and, most recently, overseeing the management of more than $2 billion worth of contracts. She currently works part time as a consultant for SAIC, the Gerson Lehrman Group, and M. Jane Markley Consulting, LLC. Mike McGill, PhD Internet2 Howard A. Burde, Esquire Blank Rome LLP A. John Blair, III, MD President and CEO Taconic IPA Sun http://www.himss.org http://www.himss.org/election08 http://www.peopletopeople.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - December 2008

Healthcare IT News - December 2008 Contents AHIC 2.0 Debuts See How It Works Monitored to Health Right Decisions Neurologist Needed HiMSS Insider: Four to the Board Heartened Generation Next Clinical Toolkit: Inpatient EMRs Management Solutions: Asset Tracking

Healthcare IT News - December 2008

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