Healthcare IT News - December 2008 - (Page 6)

Healthcare IT News December 2008 ■ industry news www.HealthcareITNews.com Daschle has a deep understanding of the need to increase the value of healthcare across the country. “He’s also been a strong advocate of ensuring access to healthcare for all,” Halamka said. Daschle was elected to the House in 1978 and served eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the Senate. He served as both majority and minority leader before he lost his re-election bid in 2004. Daschle was a close adviser to Obama throughout the presidential campaign. The New York Times reported Obama has also asked Daschle to serve as lead healthcare adviser to the White House. Though Daschle appears to have supporters on both sides of the aisle, some have expressed doubts about his healthcare experience. A person who wished to be identified as a GOP aide said, “Aside from writing a book and working for a major DC lobbying firm, his record on healthcare is questionable at best. He voted against providing millions of seniors with a prescription drug benefit. It makes you wonder if this new administration is interested in protecting this widely popular benefit.” Justin Barnes, board chairman of the Electronic Health Record Association, warned against undoing any progress in healthcare IT advancement that has taken place under HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt. ■ More at the use of live depersonalized He a l t h In f o r m at i o n data for seven Network Forum, Dec. 15use cases. Robert 16 in Washington, D.C., the Office K o l o d n e r, t h e of the National Coordinator for national coordiHealth Information Technology nator for healthwill showcase data exchange Robert M. care IT, said the capabilities between select Kolodner, MD demo will be the NHIN participants. The demonstration follows a trial run first implementation of national interoperability demo ONC held standards across a network of in September and will feature networks. t the 5th NatioNwide A NHIN demos set for Dec. 15-16 dASCHle Continued from page 1 Tom Nickels, senior vice president of federal relations at the American Hospital Association said, “Senator Daschle brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to HHS, and has a proven track record of building bipartisan consensus on some of our nation’s most difficult challenges.” John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, said HealthcareITNews.com e ● Connect: DaSCHLe 1208 MANOS Continued from page 3 percent of the inpatient electronic health record market. Though healthcare IT advancement is a bipartisan issue, Leavitt’s efforts were from the Republican camp. Some key Democrat lawmakers have eyed the notion of scrapping the Republican efforts for a new Democratic plan. No one will say for sure how much scrapping would be done, and it remains to be seen if any lawmaker could get such a notion through Congress. President-elect Obama has vowed $10 billion a year toward healthcare IT advancement, but he has not outlined the details of his plan yet. Daschle, who awaits Senate approval, should have some wind in his sails when he starts work. Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) of the influential Senate Finance Committee have already begun a push for pay-forperformance on hospital inpatient care under Medicare. Care will be measured through healthcare IT. The word from the public is healthcare reform. They voted for it, they want it. Almost unquestionably, stakeholders agree healthcare IT will be instrumental. Former speaker of the House and founder of the Center for Health Transformation Newt Gingrich expressed confidence in Daschle’s commitment to a fully electronic health system. “Health-based health reform should encourage and incentivize the adoption of best practices that save lives and save money,” Gingrich said. “It should call for every American to have an electronic health record by December 2012.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: MaNoS 1208 ● e ● Connect: eNoVateIt 1208 http://www.HealthcareITNews.comws.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10488 http://www.enovateit.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10499 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=10550

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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