Washington, DC - Congressman Edolphus Towns, 10th District, New York, will conduct the hearing "Too Many Cooks?  This hearing will focus on coordinating Federal and State Health IT," on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 2:00pm in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. 

Health Information Technology or Health IT is the transition from paper to electronic health records.  This transition has the potential to reduce medical errors, enhance security and privacy of health information, improve health outcomes, enhance access to care to medically underserved communities and reduce health disparities.

"The disparities in access to medical treatment, information and clinical trials deeply concern me," said Congressman Towns."  "Hopefully, the move that medical professionals are making to the use of Health IT will assist in curbing these disparities," added Congressman Towns.

This hearing will look into the concern that the preservation of private health information would be violated with the switch to Health IT.  Issues include whether records should be maintained centrally or stored by the patient, whether insurers would have access to records to screen for pre-existing conditions and whether electronic records can be fully secured and who has access to that information.

The hearing will have two panels of witnesses, included on panel one are:
• Dr. Robert Kolodner - National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Department of Health and Human Services;
• Ms. Cheryl Austein Casnoff - Associate Administrator, Office of Health Information Technology, Health Resources Services Administration;
• Dr. Carolyn Clancy - Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Panel II consists of:
• Ms. Christine Bechtel - Vice President of Public Policy & Government Relations eHealth Initiative;
• Dr. Winston Price - Chair, Health IT and Transparency Advisory Board, State of Georgia;
• Ms. Lori Evans - Deputy Commissioner for Health IT Transformation, State of new York;
• Dr. Farzad Mostashari - Assistant Commissioner, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, City of New York;
• Dr. Neil Calman - President, The Institute for Urban Family Health.

There are bills expected to be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that will connect Health IT with medically underserved communities before 2008.  H.R. 2406, which was passed out of the House Committee on Science and Technology, sets enterprise level standards through the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, while H.R. 3800 sets standards for interoperable systems, the development and use of quality measures, and privacy and security.

Many state and local governments have actively supported the development of Health IT despite a lack of funding from federal sources.  Federal contracts have been made to six states, Colorado, Indiana, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah and Delaware, to support state and regional data sharing, and coordinate state and local Health IT, with 36 bills passed into law in 24 states.

###

Return to Congressman Towns' website