Health IT czar, standards in the works

Maybe they got tired of being called a "do-nothing" Congress. Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping health-IT bill that would make permanent the sub-cabinet position of national health-IT czar and form a committee to govern national standards for interoperability. The Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006, or H.R. 4157, hopes to accelerate healthcare providers' adoption of IT, including interoperable electronic health record (EHR) and e-prescribing systems. The bill's passage comes several months after the U.S. Senate passed its own health IT bill with many similar provisions. However, among the differences is tougher patient privacy provisions in the Senate bill. While many Washington insiders expect the Senate and House to soon work on a compromise bill that if passed, could be signed into law by President Bush by the fall, some say the privacy issue could derail or delay the bill. The betting here is something passes before the midterm election in November.

For more background on the new healthcare IT bill:
- read this Information Week article
- review the text of the bill here (.pdf)

PLUS: A coalition of 13 patient and consumer advocacy groups argues that the House bill doesn't do enough to protect patient privacy. Release

ALSO: A former emergency medical technician worries that moving ahead with EHRs could lead to problems unless the industry adopts national standards. Blog

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