Health Care IT Trade Group Expresses Opposition to Rep. Stark’s Electronic Health Records Bill
In a letter to House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) and ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society expressed opposition to some provisions of a bill (HR 6898) intended to encourage nationwide adoption of electronic health records, CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily, 9/26).
The bill, introduced by Stark, would codify within HHS the position of health information technology coordinator and create a federal advisory committee, which would be charged with creating by 2011 a final version of standards governing interoperability and security, and capitalizing on the clinical use of health IT. In addition, the bill would direct that open-source technology be developed and made available to health care providers at a "nominal cost" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 9/16).
The letter, released on Thursday, stated that the proposal to create a federal advisory committee could "dismantle the work that the federal government and private sector have already achieved." The letter also stated that development, routine updating and provision of an open-source health IT system "is not the role of the federal government and such product development should remain in the private sector," adding, "Health care IT is available via a competitive market in which vendors compete on the basis of price, quality and functionality of a product" (CongressDaily, 9/26).
