In our industry, we know information is imperative for the advancement of clinical care. We know EHRs will revolutionize the way physicians deliver care and practice management systems will make medical billing so efficient, looking at kitten memes will seem difficult in comparison.
Alas, it’s us we’re talking about and while we get it, a still-rather large percentage of the population thinks we’re as nutty as the Israeli inventor who believes his cardboard bicycle will change the world. But do the presidential candidates take us seriously?
Below is a few health IT questions we’d ask the candidates, followed by how we believe they’d reply. Of course, these are the kind of unrealistically tactful answers that only exist in a perfect world where these guys are allowed to get along, buy their counterparts’ daughters Lisa Frank school gear, and then get together to discuss ideas on how to ensure the continued success of the craft beer industry while themselves enjoying craft beers.
Moderator: What is the role of health IT in legislation?
Obama: HIT is key to improving the way care is delivered. I recognized this early on in my presidency, passing the HITECH Act under the ARRA in 2009.
Under the HITECH Act, we created something called Meaningful Use criteria, which boasts two incentive programs – one for Medicare, another for Medicaid – for eligible providers that implement EHRs, enforced by HHS’s ONC.
Romney: While HIT is of utmost importance to providing a patient’s complete medical history at the point of care to avoid duplicate tests and procedures, too much legislation could bring up privacy concerns over the kind of data that can be safely exchanged and how.
Moderator: On that note, what happens to Meaningful Use if you’re elected?
Romney: Well, I believe that measures to push the implementation of EHRs should be done at the state, not federal, level.
So while hospitals and physicians should implement EHRs to lower costs and improve care coordination and interoperability, my administration will take on efforts to seriously examine the Meaningful Use incentive program.
Obama: As mentioned above, I’m a strong supporter of the Meaningful Use incentive program, so it’s clearly not going anywhere. There is a reason the bailout plan injected $20 billion into healthcare IT – innovation in the healthcare field is key to providing more efficient patient care.
We even established National Health Information Technology Week in September to promote this kind of innovation.
Moderator: So how will personalized medicine revolutionize care delivery be affected under your administration?
Obama: Federal health IT efforts will likely continue on their current path.
While the second Bush administration demonstrated a great interest in health IT, we went as far as providing federal funding for health IT efforts, recognizing that continued technological advances in how medical information is proliferated are key to aiding providers and patient decision-making.
Not to mention, the ACA is here to stay, and the act provides the framework for HIEs, ACOs, and data transparency. It goes hand in hand with the health IT field.
Furthermore, we will continue to make health data transparency a priority. The HHS has been releasing health data via the Health Data Initiative, which makes more data available from the HHS vaults. For this, I appointed Todd Park as US CTO, whose background in health IT will help us move toward greater private-sector innovation and entrepreneurship.
Romney: Like I’ve said before, I support a move towards personalized medicine, and I believe health IT is key to making this happen. I backed several health IT initiatives when I was governor of Massachusetts, such as regional health IT pilot programs to study the effectiveness of EHRs.
But I believe healthcare funding of any kind should never take place at the federal level, which is one of the reasons why I will repeal the ACA if I’m elected.
And on the issue of health data transparency, I agree and believe it’s here to stay. You would see no efforts to do away with data-releasing initiatives during my first term. I would appoint the kind of leadership that is sufficiently qualified to keep driving American innovation.
Moderator: We all agree something must be done to remedy the way patient care is carried out. Is health IT the answer?
CareCloud thinks that’s a yes. Health IT bridges partisan divides, as well it should.
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