HIMSS sends IT wish list to Obama administration

Dec 17, 2008

In a detailed report that took four months to develop, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) formally requested that the next U.S. Congress and the Obama administration invest a minimum of $25 billion in healthcare information technology.

The Chicago-based association requested that $25 billion exclusively be used for acquisition of electronic medical records by nongovernmental hospitals and physicians. HIMSS asked that additional funding be allocated to support electronic medical adoption by federal and state-owned healthcare providers, and also to establish health IT "action zones."

Other priorities and recommendations specified in "A Call for Action: Enabling Healthcare Reform Using Information Technology" include:

Making health information technology available to Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program providers of healthcare to children

Applying recognized standards and certified health IT products among all federally funded health programs, by requiring that providers and payors purchase health IT products that apply Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) interoperability specifications and are certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT)

Expanding Stark exemptions and antikickback safe harbors for electronic medical records to cover additional healthcare software and related devices that apply HITSP interoperability specifications, are CCHIT-certified, and allow for better coordination of care and information sharing among related providers and their patients

Establishing a senior-level health IT director in the Obama administration to oversee a national health IT strategy

Authorizing and funding a federal advisory committee to be responsible for advising the Obama administration on health IT initiatives throughout the U.S., as well as coordinating standards harmonization through collaboration with HITSP and CCHIT

Codifying HITSP as the national standards harmonization body responsible for collaborating with the public and private sector to achieve standards to enable widespread interoperability among healthcare software applications

Conducting a White House summit on healthcare reform through information technology to develop consensus and propose solutions to critical, national health IT issues within the context of the national healthcare reform effort

The report, issued December 17, was developed by a committee consisting of more than 100 HIMSS member volunteers to ensure that health IT is appropriately addressed in anticipated healthcare reform policy in 2009. It may be read in its entirety at www.himss.org/2009calltoaction.

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