Reps. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas) and Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) have introduced a bipartisan bill designed to help physicians afford the high cost of adopting healthcare information technology.
The bill, called the National Health Information Incentive Act, offers grants, loans and tax incentives to offset the cost of physicians implementing healthcare IT.
Gingrey, a physician, said that many physician practices are small businesses with concerns for their bottom line. "By providing financial incentives for doctors to adopt health IT, this bill will get life-saving technology into physician offices and into the lives of American patients," Gingrey said.
According to Gonzalez, chair of the Small Business Committee's Subcommittee on Regulation, Healthcare, and Trade, widespread healthcare IT adoption will revolutionize the standard and quality of healthcare received in America.
"Just as government investment has catalyzed research in other industries, the incentives provided in this legislation will spark adoption of these technologies, resulting in vast public health benefits," Gonzalez said "These incentives attack the very root of the problem facing small practices, where a majority of Americans receive their care, by helping them overcome financial obstacles they face with [healthcare] IT implementation."
Gingrey said the future of American healthcare would be determined in large part by our adoption of health information technology.
"Right now, the healthcare sector is woefully behind in using technology to reduce medical errors and streamline care," Gingrey said. "Our ATMs shouldn't be more advanced than our medical records."
According to Becky Ruby, a spokesperson for Gingrey, the H.R. 1952 bill is a combination of two different bills introduced separately last year by Gingrey and Gonzalez. Experts and Gingrey hope that the bipartisan aspect of this year's bill will help it to pass, Ruby said. "Our goal is to have it be something that both Congress and the president could support," Ruby said.
Incentives in the bill include a tax depreciation incentive available to all physicians who want to buy healthcare IT, raised from the proposed $100,000 in last year's bill to $250,000. Grants and loans will be available to physician practices of fewer than 10 doctors. The bill also includes bonuses for physicians who report Medicare performance data.
According to Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing and government affairs at Greenway Medical Technologies, who helped to craft the bill, the bill has a very comprehensive and appealing pay-for-performance aspect.
"This bill really addresses the cost barriers for physicians and this is a step in the right direction on the part of Congress," Barnes said. "It's one of the first HIT bills out there in the 110th congress that creates strong baseline incentives for providers to adopt and purchase healthcare IT."
Barnes said the bill has a strong chance of passing because reducing the rising cost of healthcare is at the top of the priority list for Congress and the president.