ACP: Governmental Affairs and Public Policy - ACP Urges Passage of H.R. 4157, the "Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006"

Advocacy

ACP Urges Passage of H.R. 4157, the "Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006"

July 26, 2006

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert
Speaker of the House of Representatives
H-232 Capitol Building
Washington, DC 20515-6501

Dear Mr. Speaker:

On behalf of the American College of Physicians (ACP), representing 120,000 doctors of internal medicine and medical students, we urge you to support passage of H.R. 4157, the “Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006” as an essential step toward enactment of a final compromise that incorporates key provisions of H.R. 4157, as well as important provisions in legislation that has been passed by the U.S. Senate. We greatly appreciate the significant amount of work involved in crafting legislation that will ultimately lead to the adoption of interoperable health information technology.

There are many positive aspects of the “Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006” that will assist in moving medical providers toward the full-scale adoption of interoperable health information technology (HIT). Specific provisions the College finds especially favorable are:

Authorization of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) and clear definition of the duties of that office;
Creation of a clear safe harbor to the Federal Anti-kickback Statute and an exception to the Self-Referral Law; and
Authorization to study and reconcile the variation of State and Federal standards established under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

As the bill is considered in a House and Senate conference committee, we will continue to work for the inclusion of provisions that would include financial and reimbursement incentives to physicians, particularly those in small physician practices. Many of the savings recognized from a fully-integrated HIT system largely flows to payers and not the physician practice absorbing the initial start-up costs and ongoing maintenance of systems.

ACP continues to be concerned about the mandate to replace the use of International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-9-CM) with ICD-10-CM by October 2010. We believe that the conversion and use of ICD-10-CM, and its greatly expanded set of diagnosis codes, will be costly and burdensome to physician practices, especially those small to mid-sized practices.

Again, ACP appreciates all the important work in crafting legislation leading to the advancement and adoption of HIT and we urge you to vote for its passage. The College will continue to work to assure that any final House-Senate agreement includes safe harbors, codification of ONCHIT, and authorization to study and reconcile the variation of State and Federal standards established under HIPAA, as proposed in the House bill, as well as other measures to break down the barriers to HIT adoption without creating new unworkable administrative mandates on physician practices.

Sincerely,

Lynne M. Kirk, MD, FACP
President

cc: Chairman Joe Barton, House Energy and Commerce Committee
Chairman Bill Thomas, House Ways and Means Committee
U.S. House of Representatives Members