Women in Technology hosted a roundtable event to give their members a closer look at how healthcare policy intersects with technology.  The presentations dove into where our government is heading when it comes to Health IT.  Particularly when it comes to Electronic Health Records, the speakers focused on the recent progress in moving these life- (and money-) saving technologies forward.

Tina Olson, SVP for Policy at the Healthcare Leadership Council, noted that electronic health records were actually part of the economic stimulus bill (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act).  The bill provides many deadlines, standards and incentives.  They include Medicare bonus payments to eligible physicians and hospitals using electronic health records as soon as 2011.

The stimulus bill also includes:

• $2 billion for an Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT within HHS;
• $21 billion in net spending ($44.7 billion in total outlays) to Medicare and Medicaid providers that adopt and demonstrate meaningful use of Health IT;
• Provisions on the privacy and security of protected health information.

In related news, according to Government Health IT, a panel advising the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT said it will heed the overwhelming consensus it has received in recent public comments to develop the simplest possible certification standards for accelerating health IT adoption.

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