eHealth Initiative and Health Policy Institute of Ohio convene Mid-Eastern States Events on Health Information Exchange
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Karla Hurter |
September 28, 2005 |
Full House committee will hear testimony Thursday from leader in electronic health information exchang
Marchibroda to testify before House Government Reform Committee
September 28, 2005 Washington, D.C.—The full House Government Reform Committee will hear testimony tomorrow from one of the leading multi-stakeholder organizations focused on mobilizing information to support health and healthcare.
Janet Marchibroda, CEO of the eHealth Initiative, will give expert testimony to the Committee at 10 a.m. in room 2154 of the Rayburn Building regarding the progress and challenges associated with the development of a national health IT strategy as well as challenges to achieving interoperability among health IT systems. The eHealth Initiative and its Foundation are independent, non-profit affiliated organizations which bring together multiple, diverse stakeholders to achieve their shared mission, which is to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology.
The House Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP), which insures 8 million federal enrollees and their dependents. The eHealth Initiative has recommended that large federal health insurance programs, such as Medicare and FEHBP, become proving grounds for programs that reward not only the quality and safety of healthcare but also the HIT and health information capabilities required to achieve those goals. Marchibroda's testimony will draw on the results of eHealth Initiative's recent survey of 109 health information exchange initiatives and its experience working with large national purchasers, practicing clinicians and community-based health information exchange efforts to develop common principles for aligning incentives with both quality and IT—as outlined in eHI’s "Parallel Pathways for Quality Healthcare Principles."
The testimony will be heard in the context of high interest in the use of IT to improve health and healthcare within Congress and the Administration. Also on Thursday, the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee will hear testimony on H.R. 3617 – The Medicare Value-Based Purchasing Act for Physicians—which includes, in addition to differential payments based on quality, structural measures related to HIT. Currently, several HIT-related bills are pending in the House and Senate. And earlier this month, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt appointed 16 leaders—eight from the private sector--to America’s Health Information Community (AHIC), a federally-chartered commission tasked to advance the drive to reach President Bush’s goal of providing electronic medical records for most Americans within a decade.
Others scheduled to testify Thursday include David Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., national HIT coordinator, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Robert M. Kolodner, MD, acting VHA chief health informatics officer and acting deputy chief information officer for health, Veterans Health Administration; David Powner, director of information technology management issues, Government Accountability Office; Dr. Carol Diamond, managing director, Markle Foundation; Diane M. Carr, associate executive director, healthcare information systems, Queens Health Network; and Larry Blue, vice president and general manager, Symbol Technologies.
For a copy of the eHealth Initiative’s recent report, "Emerging Trends and Issues in Health Information Exchange: Second Annual Survey of State, Regional and Community-based Health Information Exchange Initiatives and Organizations," and "Parallel Pathways for Quality Healthcare," go to http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/.
