Patrick Kennedy news from FierceHealthIT

It's become pretty clear that President-Elect Obama thinks the best kind of economic stimulus is one that also creates lasting jobs, and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Read more...

After months of discussion, it looks like Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) is planning to move ahead with a bill promoting the use of PHRs. As anticipated, the bill would offer incentives of as much as $3 per patient to providers that play ball. The payments would come from an incentive fund drawing on dollars from the Medicare trust as well as health plans, drug and device manufacturers. Kennedy's PHR would work based on Web technology, rather than requiring doctors or hospitals to invest in …

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Here's still more evidence that federal lawmakers are fans of health IT. For one thing, at least two health IT bills from Rep. Patrick Kennedy are in the works, one of which would pay physicians to build PHRs. Another federal bill would allow states to give doctors low-interest loans to buy health IT. Also, look for the dozens of pending state health coverage expansion proposals to emphasize health IT as a means of making coverage affordable. Article

It's dueling data stores, everyone. This week, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and health industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans have announced that they're creating their own personal health record (PHR) model. This new PHR would be transferable from one insurance company to another. The effort, which should go live in 2008, will presumably compete with the giant personal health record effort being launched by a handful of mega-employers like Wal-Mart Stores and …

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