Healthcare reform needs information technology

Information technology runs like a thread through the health insurance reform bill signed into law March 23 by President Obama.

Among the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is a call for the government to develop a plan by Jan. 1, 2012 to integrate reporting on quality of care with reporting of meaningful use of electronic health records.

"Meaningful use" is a term already in use by the Health and Human Services Department, in its distribution of $19 billion in stimulus funds allotted  to the encouragement of health information technology adoption. An interim rule defines meaningful use, as an initial minimum, as the electronic capture and sharing of patient data by doctors and hospitals. Later stages, starting in 2015, would require EHR's use in promoting quality of care improvement.

The new law links Medicare payments to hospitals with patient outcomes beginning in fiscal 2013, a provision that has been unpopular with some medical practitioners for fear that it would homogenize health care. Proponents have said quality standards cover basic treatment; medical providers are already required to report quality measures to the government.

Physicians that fail to report quality measures by the start of 2015 under the new law would be denied at least 98 percent of their government fee.

The law also calls for establishment by this July of websites for lawful residents to compare sector health insurance plans within their states.

For more:
- read the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, either as html text, or in .pdf form
- check out this Washington Technology article
- read this Nextgov article

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