Senate Bills - 109th Congress

S. 1282—The Health Technology to Enhance Quality Act of 2005

On June 16, Senators Bill Frist (R-TN) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) introduced S. 1282, the Health Technology to Enhance Quality Act of 2005. The bill would codify the Office of National Coordinator for Information Technology; set up a collaborative process for identifying and adopting content, communication, and security standards for interoperability; establish mandatory standards across federal government programs, and voluntary for private sector; and provide ‘such sums as necessary’ funding to states to assist in removing barriers to the electronic exchange of health information. In addition, the measure directs the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs and other relevant Federal agencies to adopt uniform health care quality measures to assess the effectiveness, timeliness, efficiency, patient centeredness, and safety of care across Federal health care programs. The bill would authorize $125 million annually (for five years) in grants to local or regional collaborations of hospitals, health plans, doctors, consumers, employers and others to develop health information technology infrastructure utilizing national standards adopted under Titles I and III of the Act. S. 1282 was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.