Health IT Standards Included in House Bill Recently Approved
Last week, the House Science and Technology Committee approved HR-2406. The bill calls for development of standards in healthcare information technology to be used by federal agencies. News of the Committee approval was posted by The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be responsible for the development and adoption of these standards through creation of the Healthcare Information Enterprise Integration Initiative. Toward this effort, healthcare and information technology organizations, along with federal agencies, will provide assistance.
The National Science Foundation will support NIST in creating a grant program to support partnerships between universities, industry, non profit agencies, and federal laboratories. That collaborative will be used to create the Centers for Healthcare Information Enterprise Integration.
The legislation was sponsored Bart Gordon (D-Tenn), who is also the Chair of the Committee. He cited the need to create a healthcare system that leverages information technology, noting that the paper-based system is antiquated. These improvements can better the quality of care delivered, as well as a reduction in the incidence of medical errors.
An additional component tacked on to the bill prior to Committee approval was earmarking monies for grant programs to support healthcare information technology efforts; including electronic health records and billing, means to communicate information between providers and health insurers, and e-prescribing.
October 31, 2007 Related topics: Legal & legislative, Partnerships & Consortia, IT & software