Health information technology adoption and health care reform are “joined at the hip,” David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, told reporters during a conference call. “I don’t think we can achieve the president’s vision of health care reform without 21st century technology. Health IT is a means to an end.”

Obama has pledged to reform the health care system and expand access to coverage. In his fiscal 2010 budget request to Congress in March, Obama proposed $630 billion to start comprehensive health care reform.

via Health care reform tied to IT — Federal Computer Week.

Though the Recovery Act provided $17 billion for payments to clinicians and hospitals through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, actual spending could be more than double that figure, depending on the rate of e-records adoption, said Dave Roberts, HIMSS vice president for government relations, during a press briefing on Saturday.

Roberts said the $17 billion in the stimulus package is an estimate of funding needed to meet the act’s pledge of giving providers that use health information technology systems in a “meaningful way” $44,000 each during a five-year period to defray expenses, starting with an $18,000 payment in 2010. The e-records initiative is an entitlement program like Social Security, he said.

Roberts said his $39 billion estimate was based on a Congressional Budget Office analysis. CBO estimated that information technology could reduce overall health care costs by $15 billion for that same time period as a result of increased efficiencies, he added.

via Nextgov – Adopting e-health records could cost more than anticipated.

While only 9 percent of consumers surveyed have an electronic personal health record, 42 percent are interested in establishing PHRs connected online to their physicians.

Fifty-five percent want the ability to communicate with their doctor via e-mail to exchange health information and get answers to questions.

Fifty-seven percent reported they’d be interested in scheduling appointments, buying prescriptions and completing other transactions online if their information is protected.

Technology that can facilitate consumer transactions with providers and health plans, such as integrated billing systems that make bill payment faster and more convenient, appeal to nearly half (47 percent) of consumers surveyed.

The survey of more than 4,000 U.S. consumers 18 and older was released at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference in Chicago last week. It’s the second annual study examining healthcare consumers’ attitudes, behaviors and unmet needs conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

via Industry News | Healthcare IT News.

In 137 pages of written answers to questions from members of the Senate Finance Committee after an April 2 confirmation hearing, Sebelius repeatedly cited health IT as a way to lower costs, raise the quality of care and achieve comprehensive health care reform.

“A nationwide interoperable health IT infrastructure is a fundamental building block for broader health reform,” she wrote, adding that the federal government must step in to ensure that “systems are interoperable and that patient privacy is assured.”

via Sebelius sees IT as key to health reform — Government Health IT.

“Rock and a Hard Place: An Analysis of the $36 Billion Impact From Health IT Stimulus Funding,” from the New York-based PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute, finds that healthcare providers are struggling to find money to implement electronic health record systems, primarily because the sour economy has depleted capital resources and forced them to make cuts in information technology.

And while the federal government is pledging $33 billion in incentives to compel providers to adopt meaningful EMR systems by 2015, that money won’t compensate hospitals enough for the costs they incur in setting up the systems, the report states.

A better motivator, PwC researchers say, is the threat of reduced Medicare reimbursements if those IT goals are not met.

via Industry News | Healthcare IT News.

Rajiv Shah, who was heading Wipro’s technology business unit, will now head the newly-created healthcare business unit, and will report to the joint chief executive Suresh Vaswani. Mr Shah will be replaced by GK Prasanna. Mr Prasanna was the head of the technology infrastructure services at the company.

“Healthcare is somewhat recession-proof when compared to other verticals, and Wipro already had assets needed to establish a bigger healthcare practice,” said a person familiar with the development at Wipro. He requested anonymity.

In a communication to Wipro’s leadership team, the company’s joint CEOs Mr Vaswani and Mr Girish Paranjpe, said the newly-created healthcare practice will help Wipro address the big healthcare IT spend being planned by the US government.

via Wipro focuses on crisis-proof biz segments- ITeS-Infotech-The Economic Times.

The e-mails also revealed an ongoing dispute between medical personnel in the field and program managers with the Military Health System over the new Theater Medical Data Store and the system it replaced, the Joint Patient Tracking Application.

In a March 2 e-mail, Army Brig. Gen. William Gamble, command surgeon for the U.S. Central Command, bluntly told Army Col. Claude Hines, program manager for the Defense Health Information Management System at the Military Health System, that “JPTA worked. The alternative does not. Simple. We need to allow JPTA data entry. I know you are doing your absolute. But as I said a year ago, flick the switch. JPTA is better than what we have now.”

In his e-mail, Gamble detailed myriad problems with the new TMDS system, including a significant delay between the time clinicians in Iraq upload data onto the network and when it is visible to doctors. The delay is particularly frustrating for clinicians at the Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany, which is the first stop for wounded soldiers coming from Iraq as they make their way to U.S. hospitals.

He said the minimum time delay to load data into TMDS was three hours and “at times much longer, 48 hours by accounts from [theater] medical providers.”

via Nextgov – Military doctors blast new system to track wounded soldiers in Iraq.

Since President Bush’s call to action in 2004, the government has made some progress with electronic health records and regional health information exchanges. These are good first steps, but advances in technology and changing values in our society mean our industry must become more agile to accomplish the radical transformation the industry needs to undergo. The rapid increase in consumer uses of Web 2.0 for health care information and community-building has changed the nature of the doctor-patient relationship and the way health care is consumed today. At the same time, the increasing amounts, depths and accessibility of medical knowledge have necessitated a change in thinking about the way medicine is taught and will be delivered in the future.

From a consumer perspective, the Internet has democratized health care. Access to vast quantities of vetted, actionable and reliable health care information has shifted the “power of knowledge” from the doctor to the patient. In earlier generations, only doctors had the latest medical information or experience managing disease. Now, people are constantly “plugged-in” and can easily search online for health care information. They also can access social networks of people with similar ailments with whom they can share their collective wisdom. This has irrevocably changed the nature of a doctor’s relationship with patients. As part of health care reform, the new Secretary of Health and Human Services will need to think about how we can change the structure and policies of health care to acknowledge this and monetize the automated, online or virtual service models that consumers are demanding. 

Furthermore, unlike past generations, today’s patients have become more empowered and active in managing their own wellness. Web-focused, techno-savvy health care consumers are more willing to store personal or private information online in the hope of speeding progress for cures. Many now create and manage their own personal health records online. Hopefully, the new Secretary will work with President Obama to help cultivate this consumer grassroots movement to personal health records with the right incentives, standards and economic policies.

via The Politics of Health Care : Change Can’t Happen with Technology Alone.

Here’s why: Because the digitizing of medical records could have a far more profound effect on health — and on our economy — than most people realize. The president said the recovery plan will “invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives.” All that and much more is possible. With a new HHS Secretary and health czar, and a White House health care summit scheduled this week, this is the right time to act.

“Electronic health records” don’t sound like a particularly exciting or innovative idea. But neither did “a network that could quickly reroute digital traffic around failed nodes” in case of military attack, or “dynamic routing protocols to constantly adjust the flow of traffic” between computers. Yet those were the modest original goals of ARPANET — which evolved into the Internet as we know it today.

via RJ Eskow: It’s More Than an Electronic Health Record — Call It a “Health Information Highway”.