Lately there's been a flurry of activity related to health IT in the 114th Congress. At the end of March, the House passed the SGR bill, or "Doc Fix," by an overwhelming vote of 392-37. If there are no hang-ups, the Senate is expected to pass it Tuesday night.
The SGR bill repeals the old formula to pay doctors and creates a new formula for a value-based Medicare payment system. The bill also includes a few key HIT measures: it requires HHS to create metrics to determine if EHRs are interoperable by July 2016, it defines interoperability as the ability of two health systems to exchange clinical data, and it includes language requiring providers to show they are not blocking information – just to name a few provisions.
Also moving quickly, the House Energy and Commerce Committee released the 21st Century Cures draft bill in January. The Committee is expected to have a hearing on this bill on April 30, and then mark-up the final draft before the Memorial Day break, according to Committee staff. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) is responsible for a large section of the bill addressing interoperability and some other HIT matters. Rep. Burgess' draft language goes further than the SGR bill language on HIT policy, but his office is welcoming stakeholder input on the discussion draft before it is finalized.
On the Senate side, Senators Richard Burr and Lamar Alexander released their "Innovation Report" in January as well. Slightly different from Cure's initiative, the Senate report focuses on medical innovation and considers reforming the FDA and NIH to keep up with the pace of modern medicine. A handful of Republican senators, known as the REBOOT group, wrote a report over a year ago to reevaluate the progress of the 2009 HITECH Act, honing in on the meaningful use program and interoperability of EHRs. The REBOOT group has been convening this year and working with HIT stakeholders. The Senate HELP Committee had an HIT hearing, the first of its kind in six years, in March to discuss these two HIT topics in depth. These policy issues are expected to come up again, likely after the Senate passes the SGR reform bill and the House moves on the Cure's Initiative.
Health IT will continue to be a hot topic in Congress for the foreseeable future. Some legislative initiatives may move quickly while others will have a much longer life span, likely taking years to evolve. To help shape these initiatives, health IT stakeholders should take an active role in helping to educate key Senators, Representatives and their staff about the current and likely future state of the health IT market. Without this type of proactive input from key stakeholders, resulting legislation may not meet its intended goals.
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