Senate Bills - 108th Congress

S. 2710—National Health Information Technology Adoption Act

On July 21, 2004, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) introduced S. 2710, the National Health Information Technology Adoption Act. The bill would establish an Office of Health Information Technology within the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and require Federal adoption of data standards within 2 years of enactment, including clinical data standards as medical language (i.e. high blood pressure v. hypertension) and interoperability data. Federal health IT purchases would be limited to systems compliant with Federally-adopted standards. Federal funding would be provided for the creation of Local Health Information Infrastructures (LHIIs) using Federal interoperable systems. It would also require the Secretaries of HHS, Defense and VA to establish uniform measures of quality care and within three years of enactment promulgate regulations for the measurement and collection of those quality measures. S. 2710, which has three cosponsors, was referred to the Senate HELP Committee.