House Ways and Means Committee To Introduce Own Legislation To Encourage EHR Adoption

Lawmakers and federal experts on Thursday at a House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee hearing discussed possible revisions to a bill (HR 6357), which was approved on Wednesday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, intended to encourage nationwide adoption of electronic health records, CQ Today reports. According to CQ Today, the hearing also included discussion regarding developing the subcommittee's own version of the bill.

Participants at the hearing also raised several issues with the House Energy and Commerce Committee's bill, over which the House Ways and Means Committee holds equal authority, CQ Today reports. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) said that the bill should have a provision that would penalize health care providers who do not adopt EHR technology, just as it already contains an incentive provision for providers who do. He also noted that the $560 million that the bill authorizes likely will be insufficient to encourage providers to switch to the new technology and subsidize the cost of the equipment (Wayne, CQ Today, 7/24).

Subcommittee ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) also warned that privacy protections for health information technology bills should not restrict the providers' abilities to offer adequate care to patients. He said, "Congress must ... not overburden them with a new unworkable set of regulations" (Noyes, CongressDaily, 7/24).

Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag told the subcommittee that establishing a widespread and interoperable health IT system could cost between $50 billion and $70 billion, excluding maintenance expenses. Orszag said, "It seems unlikely, unless you're to have very, very large budget impacts, to get universal or near-universal implementation with only a 'carrot' approach" (CQ Today, 7/24). He recommended a so-called "stick" approach for the implementation of a nationwide EHR system, which would include a combination of rewards and penalties to encourage providers to use the technology.

Ways and Means Bill
Stark said he intends to introduce legislation that would utilize Medicare payments as a way to encourage health care providers to adopt EHR systems. In addition, the bill would include patient privacy protection measures that would allow individuals to file suits in the event of a data breach. Stark added that the bill he plans to introduce should not be considered as an effort to override similar measures already proposed in Congress. Stark likely could introduce the bill next week, according to sources, CongressDaily reports.

He said that the Bush administration has "moved rather slowly" to meet President Bush's goal, set in 2004, that every U.S. resident should have an EHR by 2014. "When it comes to medical records, we're stuck in the 19th century," Stark said (CongressDaily, 7/24).

In addition, Camp said he plans to introduce his own health IT bill that would offer tax incentives to health care providers who adopt EHRs. Stark said he would work with Camp on a bill from the Ways and Means Committee. He added that tax incentives would not encourage not-for-profit health providers to adopt EHR systems (CQ Today, 7/24).