HHS secretary driving U.S. policy change for healthcare IT adoption

By Kristin Courtemanche, Contributing Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. - As Congress tackles health information technology legislation and efforts to enable secure health information exchange struggles on the federal and state levels, a leader with passion and understanding is required for success.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt is extremely well-versed in spearheading feats of large-scale organizational change. Leavitt’s keynote address Tuesday morning, Feb. 26, is expected to touch on his efforts to promote widespread certified healthcare IT adoption in the U.S. as well as his recent involvement in a pending Medicare bill on Capitol Hill.

Prior to becoming HHS Secretary, he served as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was a three-term Governor of Utah.

As Secretary of HHS he manages more than 67,000 employees as well as a budget accounting for nearly one out of every four federal dollars, and is poised to leverage his department’s influence on healthcare IT legislature.

In early December 2007, Secretary Leavitt urged Congress to include a requirement for doctors to use electronic health records as part of any proposed Medicare physician payment fix bill. Despite resistance from physician groups, he proclaimed, “I’m confident that many members of Congress are of a like mind on this issue and I will actively work with them in the near future.”

Facing a recent final ruling from the Centers on Medicare and Medicaid Services for a 10.1 percent reduction in payment rates, physician groups dug their heels in against purchasing healthcare IT systems, citing affordability and interoperability as barriers.

Leavitt, however, is willing to put his money where his mouth is: in November 2006 he announced a new incentive demonstration from HHS that will reward 1,200 doctors over the next five years for adopting certified electronic health records.

This initiative goes hand in hand with one of the Secretary’s nine stated principles, “Collaboration, not polarization” and it is hoped that private payers will choose to follow his lead in rewarding doctors for adopting electronic health records and spur an increasing percentage of adopters nationwide.

Posted by Kristin Courtemanche on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 10:58 am
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