Kaisernetwork.org – Dec. 18, 2008.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society on Wednesday released a set of policy recommendations for the incoming Obama administration and the 111th Congress that outline five priorities to promote wider use of health information technology and stimulate the economy, CQ HealthBeat reports…  Click title to read more…

Under the recommendations, HIMSS called on the federal government to invest at least $25 billion to help non-governmental hospitals establish electronic health records systems for patients. HIMSS also recommended that all government-funded health programs be required to purchase health IT products that have been certified by the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel and the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology to ensure better standardization.

In addition, the next HHS secretary should expand anti-kickback “safe harbors” for EHR systems to ensure a more coordinated flow of information between health care providers and their patients, the group said. The group also called for the creation of a senior level health IT administrator and a federal advisory and coordinating body that would coordinate national health IT adoption. The final recommendation is for President-elect Barack Obama to convene a White House summit to discuss the role of health IT in health care reform.

In a statement, HIMSS President and CEO H. Stephen Lieber said, “We are convinced that moving forward with health IT now will not only be critical to ensuring sustainable positive change for consumers, but will also provide an immediate economic stimulus in the way of new jobs across the health care sector.”

The recommendations received the support of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), co-chair of the 21st Century Health Care Caucus and a longtime advocate for health IT. On Wednesday, Kennedy called for health IT measures to be included in an anticipated economic stimulus package. At a press conference, Kennedy said, “We can’t miss this opportunity to take the added spending that we have to use and really focus it on something that’s going to deliver long-term results for our country,” adding, “As much as everybody’s clamoring for the A to Z programs and everything seems like a great program to fund, we should take the forest from the trees view and see the chance that this gives us to really do health care reform broadly … because we have the budget to do it right now and it won’t come around again in a really long time” (Weyl, CQ HealthBeat, 12/18).

The recommendations are available online (.pdf).