AARP’s One-Minute Guide to Health Information Technology Legislation

What’s at Stake?

Accurate and up-to-date records will help health care providers avoid many of the estimated 98,000 hospital deaths caused each year by medical mistakes. A national health information-technology (health IT) network would help curb health care inflation, wringing out tens of billions of dollars in paperwork waste. Health IT would help researchers understand how to make the health care delivery system smarter, more efficient, and more cost-effective. It would give consumers the ability to keep track of their health care and to avoid redundant paperwork they now fill out every time they receive treatment. And health IT would provide enhanced security for patients’ health records.

Health IT will streamline medical information, making it easier for doctors and emergency rooms to get instant access to patients’ records before treatment. For example, if a badly injured patient were allergic to a particular medication, the doctor would be able to find out right away—even if the patient couldn’t talk—before administering drugs.. Health IT also would save money by eliminating inefficient paper records and making it easier to prevent errors, identify waste, and promote the most effective treatment practices. And done right, health IT will set the necessary standards for privacy protections.

If Congress fails to pass health-IT legislation, our health care system will continue to be clogged with paperwork, and countless lives and dollars that could be saved will continue to be lost. Patients will continue to be harmed by not having their vital health information in the hands of those who care for them. Consumers will continue to be inconvenienced by the need to fill out redundant forms. Health care providers will still struggle to get complete information about their patients and will waste time on paperwork that would be better spent on patient care.

Legislative Summary
The Senate HELP and the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees have all done substantial work to lay the groundwork for action during the 111th Congress. There is a possibility that provisions to promote health IT will be included in the economic recovery package that Congress and the Obama administration hope to enact as soon as possible.

The legislation will likely give the Department of Health and Human Services a clear mandate to develop necessary standards and privacy protections for a nationwide system to exchange electronic health information. It also will provide significant financial support, which could include funding for states to help Medicaid providers to adopt health IT and to establish regional information-exchange systems, grants, and loans for small health care providers and for those in underserved communities. The legislation may also incorporate carrot-and-stick financial incentives into Medicare to encourage providers to adopt and use health-IT systems.

AARP Position
AARP strongly supports health-IT legislation. Dr. Byron Thames, a member of the AARP Board of Directors, testified before Congress that consumers want the benefits that health IT can provide. "It would save money, reduce medical errors, and improve the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of care," he said. "If health-IT legislation is not enacted, our health care system will continue to be mired in paperwork. Thousands of lives and billions of dollars will be needlessly lost."

Legislative Timeline
President Obama has said that health-IT legislation should be included in the economic recovery legislation that Congress is currently considering.