ACP: Governmental Affairs and Public Policy - ACP Congratulates Senate Majority Leader Frist and Senator Clinton on the Introduction of Legislation Encouraging the Adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT)

Advocacy

ACP Congratulates Senate Majority Leader Frist and Senator Clinton on the Introduction of Legislation Encouraging the Adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT)

June 15, 2005

The Honorable Bill Frist, M.D.
U.S. Senate
509 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Hillary Clinton
U.S. Senate
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Majority Leader Frist and Senator Clinton:

The American College of Physicians (ACP), representing 118,000 doctors of internal medicine and medical students, congratulates you on the introduction of legislation encouraging the adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT).

Experts agree that the use of HIT can revolutionize health care by putting real-time clinically relevant patient information and up-to-date evidence-based clinical decision support tools in the hands of providers. We strongly believe that an interoperable system supporting such technologies as electronic health records, electronic prescribing, and clinical decision support tools will lead to a higher standard of quality in the U.S. health care system. Unfortunately, the costs of acquiring such technologies remain prohibitively expensive for most physician practices.

There are several provisions within your legislation that will significantly improve the environment, allowing providers to move toward a full-scale adoption of HIT. Specific provisions of importance to the College are:

Recognition and authorization of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology;
Adoption of uniform, national health information standards;
Authorization of funding for grants encouraging the implementation of HIT; and
Creation of a safe harbor for entities providing equipment and other services for providers adopting HIT.

ACP also wishes to congratulate you on provisions to encourage reporting of quality measures and improvements. We strongly believe, however, that in order to achieve quality improvements based on the reporting of evidence-based measures, Congress must first guarantee the long-term financial stability of the Medicare physician payment system. It is only through additional positive updates in the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) will physicians have the financial resources to move toward a systematic process of reporting quality measures and incorporating HIT into their practices.

Once again, ACP wishes to congratulate you on the introduction of legislation encouraging the adoption of HIT. We look forward to working with you toward the full-scale adoption of HIT to achieve the ultimate objective of improving the quality of health care for all Americans.

Sincerely,

C. Anderson Hedberg, M.D., FACP
President