Kennedy moves to digitize medical records

On Wednesday Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Representative Tim Murphy (R-Pa) held a press conference to discuss the Health IT portions of the economic stimulus package. Health IT refers to the maintenance of Medical records electronically and the sharing of them over the internet in a uniform and connected way, as opposed to conventional paper methods of filing. Representative Kennedy said that Healthcare in America is going to undergo an “enormous transformation”, and that everyone has a stake in Health IT. He continued that Health IT would deliver efficiency to the system and would make it more user friendly. Representative Murphy said that the legislation would eliminate $162 billion in waste in current programs and $150 billion worth of lost work time. Stephen Lieber, President and CEO of of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), said that Health IT would be necessary to meet President Obama’s call to computerize health records in 5 years, and that Health IT is both good stimulus and good policy. Critics of the legislation cite privacy as a main concern, but Representative Murphy stated that HIPAA rules would apply to the documents contained in the system, which would protect the privacy of patients.

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service