House New Democrats Support Incentives for Healthcare Technology: Budget leadership urged to keep reserve fund encouraging efficiency, innovation

WASHINGTON, DC-- With an aim towards increasing the efficiency of administering healthcare nationwide, members of the House New Democratic Coalition today submitted a letter to the House and Senate Budget Committee leadership encouraging them to preserve the Health Information Technology Reserve Fund during the current budget resolution negotiations.

The fund, approved as part of this year’s Senate budget resolution, is designed to offer incentives and assistance to medical institutions to increase the use of technology in the diagnosis, treatment and administration of patient care.  House New Democrats believe the use of this technology will tremendously reduce the number of misdiagnoses and increase efficiency in the administration of prescription drugs. The expected result is better patient service throughout the industry and significant savings in the principle provider of public healthcare – Medicare. 

“In this age of advanced technology, there is no reason hospitals should be unequipped with the most up-to-date medical tracking and reporting systems available.  Preserving the Health Information Reserve Fund will ensure that our hospitals have the best health technology resources made available to them.  I am pleased to see the New Democrats leading this fight to improve medical treatment for Americans,” said NDC Chair Ellen O. Tauscher of California.

Twenty-six House New Democrats signed the leadership letter urging support for the Health IT Reserve Fund which, in addition to providing incentives for implementing technology, would also offer performance-based payments based on established standards of improvement.

"With healthcare costs continuing to climb, we should seize this opportunity to streamline the provision of quality care, making the system more cost-efficient for providers and affordable for patients.  This, combined with the fact that the fund is deficit-neutral over five years, makes this commonsense investment one we can not afford to pass up," said Rep. Ron Kind (Wis), co-chair of the New Democratic Coalition.

“America’s health care system is failing for too many Americans and it needs reform,” said U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (WA), a co-chair of the New Democrat Coalition. “Part of this reform can come about through the increased use of health information technology. Along with my New Democrat colleagues in the House, I urge the ranking members of the Budget Committee to preserve funding for the Health Information Technology Reserve Fund. With this reserve fund in place, we can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our health care system and, through the use of these new technologies, we can help alleviate the growing financial burden, brought about by high health care costs, on taxpayers and employers.”

“We have the best healthcare in the world in this country, but it is only as good as the efficiency with which it is delivered,” said U.S. Rep. Artur Davis (AL), co-chair of the New Democratic Coalition. “With the increasing costs of healthcare dramatically undermining the quality of service patients receive, and the potential savings afforded for Medicare, we should continue to take steps that will help reduce those costs while increasing the quality of patient care.” 

From the letter:  “Inadequate health information technology has resulted in medical errors, misdiagnoses and needless test duplications that increases costs and reduces the overall quality of health care.  Last year alone, America’s healthcare providers spent $300 billion administering the wrong treatments to patients due to errors in record keeping.  In hospitals, these errors led to the death of over 50,000 Americans.  In spite of providing the most advanced medical care in the world, America’s healthcare system is dangerously reliant on paper-based prescription and record keeping techniques that are expensive, inefficient, and even fatal.”

The letter noted that “With this reserve fund in place, Congress can better proceed in providing doctors and hospitals the incentives they need to modernize their record-keeping and prescription drug services, while also helping to eliminate redundant and unnecessary cost contributors.”

U.S. Representative Lois Capps (CA), a nurse and member of the New Democrat Coalition, sees this as a critical step in the accurate administration of health care in the United States.

“As a nurse, I have seen firsthand how health information technology improves quality and reduces costs in healthcare.  It is essential that the federal government encourage more investment in this kind of technology -- to save time and money.”

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