Posted 7/20/2004 10:37 PM
Today's Top Tech Stories
Report to promote e-records for health care
By Julie Schmit and Julie Appleby, USA TODAY
Three months ago, President Bush set the goal for every American to have an electronic medical record — instead of a paper one — within 10 years.
To get there, the government will consider ways to encourage doctors and hospitals to make the investment in technology, including the possibility of grants or low-interest loans, according to a report that will be released Wednesday covering the broad outlines of how to achieve Bush's goals.
The plan, while short on specifics, marks the biggest effort by the federal government so far to encourage the use of computer technology to modernize health care, just as other industries have turned to technology to cut costs and improve quality.
More than 90% of the nation's health care transactions still occur via phone, fax or an exchange of paper. Technology could cut the nation's $1.6 trillion-a-year health care bill by at least 10%, says Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson.
He added that it might not take 10 years to meet Bush's goal: "In the next couple of years, we will see electronic health records."
Because federal and state governments, through Medicare and Medicaid, pay much of the nation's health care tab, Thompson said, "It should be a condition of doing business" with the government for hospitals and doctors to use electronic medical records.
Tech-savvy hospitals and doctors have already reduced errors with use of electronic medical records, electronic prescriptions that are always legible and software programs that warn or remind doctors of care options.
The government's plan, prepared by Dr. David Brailer, appointed as the nation's first health care tech czar in May, lays out broad strategies, including:
• Encouraging the nation's 700,000 doctors to invest in computers, software and training to keep medical records electronically. Only 13% of U.S. hospitals have electronic medical records, the report says. Anywhere from 14% to 28% of doctors' offices do.
Cost is a roadblock. Doctors spend about $10,000 a year for such systems. They save $19,000. But two-thirds of that flows to those who pay for care, insurers and employers, says Partners HealthCare System in Boston.
A panel of industry executives, to be appointed soon by Thompson, will review whether government low-interest loans and grants might be made available.
• Developing secure ways for doctors, hospitals and others to share patient information electronically. Common standards are needed to send information across the Internet, and to make sure it's secure.
• Creating a portal for some Medicare patients to access their billing information online through a pilot project later this year in Indianapolis. If it works, Thompson hopes to take it nationwide next year.
Health care executives welcome the government's focus, but they warn concrete plans are needed and progress might be slow.
"You don't change a cottage industry overnight," says Sam Karp, director of information technologies for the non-profit California HealthCare Foundation.
AI
