Quality Systems Inc. (QSII)

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Brownback visits Cerner, promotes 'debit card' medical records
Tuesday April 11, 5:36 pm ET

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, said Tuesday that he will propose legislation to allow Americans to carry their electronic health records with them "in debit-card fashion."
Brownback detailed his proposal for "an independent health care record banking system" during an appearance at the North Kansas City headquarters of health care technology vendor Cerner Corp.

Cerner President Trace Devanny said that the system will rely on the success of federal efforts to establish standards for the exchange of health care information. Once that occurs, he said, Cerner (Nasdaq: CERN - News) will "absolutely" participate as a provider of the service.

Brownback said his legislation calls for the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set up parameters for authorizing corporations, cooperatives and other groups to become providers of the banking service.

Subject to government price caps, the legislation would allow authorized providers to sell the service, which would include collecting, storing and transmitting individuals' health care data, Brownback said. The bill also would enable the providers to sell the stored data of willing consumers in aggregate form for research and other purposes.

"My guess is that there are a lot of people who would say, 'I don't want my records revealed to anybody, generically, group or individual,'" Brownback said.

Because the records will remain the property of the individual, that wish will be honored, he said. But those consumers probably will be charged a higher rate for the service.

In essence a nongeographic version of the regional health information organizations, or RHIOs, popping up across America, the health record banking service would reduce costs by eliminating duplicate diagnostic procedures, DeVanny said. It also could prevent negative medical outcomes, such as adverse drug reactions, by giving all of a participating patient's care providers access to the patient's prescription and treatment histories, he said.

Brownback said that additional record-sharing capabilities are needed because of the fragmented nature of the U.S. health care system and the spiraling costs of health care.

"We're in a crisis in health care in this country ...," Brownback said. "By 2015, we could have 20 percent of our GDP involved in the health care system. ...

"We're looking at a government health care system right now that, by 2015, could consume $4 trillion from the government sector on an annual basis. ... To give you a little perspective, right now the federal government's annual budget is about $2.3 trillion."

Published April 11, 2006 by the Kansas City Business Journal