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Health IT (HIT) has recently invoked quite a bit of consideration in front of a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C. President Obama addressed Congress on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 and focused on an opportunity to invest heavily into healthcare, energy, and education programs. President Obama stated that healthcare in America today causes one American to go bankrupt every thirty seconds and 1.5 million homes would be lost by yearend. President Obama was clear to say in public that “given these facts, we can no longer afford to put healthcare reform on hold. I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. Once again, it will be hard, but I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our healthcare has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough. So let there be no doubt: Healthcare reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) Association, a trade association of EHR companies, in partnership with the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), developing, marketing, and supporting electronic health records, has worked closely with Congress to provide information on practical applications within HIT and is responsible for the influential contribution toward the recent development of healthcare reform within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. “Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives,” President Obama declared. “It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American by seeking a cure for cancer in our time. And it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.”

EHR Association supports the legislation to provide funding of HIT in a national effort to create synergistic communication between EHRs in hospital and ambulatory care environments. Such a synergy allows for the ascertainment of concise records in patient care scenarios, facilitating automated and streamlined physician workflows. "We have worked closely with the US House of Representatives, US Senate and industry partners to provide information on the practical application of HIT throughout the development of this important economic recovery package," said Justin Barnes, EHR Association Chairman in an interview published by HIMSS. "It's not just about greater adoption of electronic health records, which, of course, are an important infrastructure component of the stimulus package, but, more fundamentally, we want to ensure Americans are afforded the real benefits of interoperable health IT and EHRs, which are proven to save lives, reduce costs and increase access to quality care."

The EHR Association, functioning for five years now, operates with the goal to improve patient care, productivity of the healthcare delivery system, and efficiency from where both currently exist, via collaboration with physician practices and hospitals to effectively set up thousands of EHRs all across the country.

Now, with the new legislation, within the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, a request for $15,000,000 would go toward the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program for the adoption and improvement of HIT, $330,771,000 for health information communications (of which $4,000,000 would go toward the improvement of information systems), and $61,231,000 would go toward necessary expenses.

"We are pleased that the work our industry has done to accelerate EHR interoperability, standards, and accelerated adoption over the past several years will serve as the foundation for ongoing efforts to transform the healthcare system," said Andy Ury, MD, EHR Association Vice Chair in an interview published by HIMSS. Dr. Ury further acknowledged that "we look forward to working closely with our customers to provide the tools and services that they will need to take advantage of the unprecedented opportunity this legislation offers."

Sources

http://www.himss.org/ASP/ContentRedirector.asp?ContentID=68983&type=HIMSSNewsItem

http://www.himssehra.org/ASP/index.asp