Talks pick up on possible health IT measure in stimulus

Aides for Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Edward Kennedy and ranking member Michael Enzi, as well as Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus and ranking member Charles Grassley, have begun discussions about including language to spur nationwide deployment of electronic health records in an economic stimulus package that lawmakers expect to roll out early next year.

"We're getting a feel for what the appetite is here and thinking about what [health IT language] might look like," an aide said today, noting that specifics will be known once the structure of the stimulus package is decided upon. "Presumably, there will be restrictions in there."

The conversations have occurred over the past few days and are being driven by Democrats, a Republican staffer stressed. A spokesman for Enzi said he believes health IT language will be worked into the stimulus or a larger healthcare package later in the year rather than advancing as a stand-alone bill. A measure sponsored this session by Kennedy and Enzi passed the HELP Committee but was held up by a small number of members who had privacy and cost concerns.

President-elect Obama might have motivated staffers to come to the table by capping off his weekly radio address Saturday with a proposal to include modernizing the U.S. healthcare system as part of an economic recovery plan -- specifically by making sure hospitals are connected via the Internet. Obama also pledged to make sure that every physician's office and hospital in the country is using cutting-edge technology and electronic records to "cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes and help save billions of dollars each year." He did not give any cost estimates for his mission to "renew our information superhighway" or his plan for a massive public-works program he expects to roll out in the coming weeks.

Obama previously vowed to invest $10 billion per year over five years on health IT. Senate staffers involved in the talks, citing Obama's weekend address, said they were unsure how his $50 billion campaign promise would factor into the stimulus plan.

Outside interests lobbying for health IT legislation are also eyeing the stimulus as a way to advance their agenda early in 2009. The Divided We Fail campaign, which is backed by the AARP, Service Employees International Union and others, wrote to members last week pushing for a bailout bill to include "significant support" for health IT and to make it a top priority next year. The Health IT Now! Coalition, which represents more than 175 stakeholders including AstraZeneca, Cisco Systems and Pfizer, is drafting a similar letter.

Information Technology Industry Council lobbyist Ralph Hellman said he was pleasantly surprised that Obama's stimulus plan includes high-tech and health IT components. Meanwhile, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans said health IT needs to be a top priority. But given the early stage of discussions among Senate aides, he could not say what language insurers would support in a stimulus package. AHIP was critical of bills in play this session, arguing they could have prevented providers from offer wellness programs and disease management.