WASHINGTON — The $819 billion economic stimulus package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday evening includes $3.9 billion for the National Institutes of Health and $20 billion for health information technology.
The bill provided $2 billion to upgrade the nation’s electronic health record infrastructure. That money also would enable Medicare and Medicaid to incent doctors and hospitals to launch and operate electronic health information technology systems, according to a story by Emily P. Walker of MedPage Today.
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The incentive payments would be phased out over time. Eventually, Medicare and Medicaid would reduce payments to doctors and hospitals that don’t use electronic health record systems, Walker said.
An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office predicts that information technology funding in the stimulus package would spur 90 percent of doctors and 70 percent of hospitals to use electronic health records within a decade.
However, adoption of electronic health records may not lower health care costs, according to a blog entry by CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf:
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Other approaches—such as the wider adoption of health information technology or greater use of preventive medical care—could improve people’s health but would probably generate either modest reductions in the overall costs of health care or increases in such spending within a 10-year budgetary window.
Meanwhile, the Association of American Medical Colleges applauded passage of the bill, saying health information technology “has the potential to improve health care quality, prevent medical errors and increase efficiency.”
Though a highly publicized study of Texas hospitals found that the use of health IT significantly improved quality and efficiency, some wonder whether those results reflect a culture of excellence in some hospitals more than the use of electronic records, according to a BNET Healthcare Insights story by Ken Terry.
President Obama has asked lawmakers to have an economic stimulus bill ready for his signature by Presidents’ Day.
More stories worth a read:
- Consumer-driven health care: Promise and performance (Health Affairs)
- Garnet Biotherapeutics gains $10 million for cell-based therapies(FierceBiotech)
- Glaxo takes $400 million legal charge over marketing probe (WSJ Health blog)
- Report: Growth in California’s biomed industry stalls (PE.com)