Yes, we are smack dab in the middle of an escalating public debate over healthcare reform, and its proposed nearly trillion-dollar price tag seems to be aggravating a growing negative vibe about the benefits of the stimulus pack. If Americans are peeved about the cost of the stimulus package and the speed of economic recovery, where does this leave healthcare IT, which scored a hefty $20 billion in that deal?
If restless Americans are beginning to question the $787 billion spent on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), how will they feel if Congress wanted to add more money to federal healthcare IT programs?
That debate is not likely to happen anytime soon, since most of the ARRA money for healthcare IT has not yet left federal coffers. To make matters worse, the mechanism for releasing bonuses to IT adopters is progressing at a painfully slow pace.
The government is not expected to release final standards and a proposal on the meaningful use providers must show to gain bonuses under the stimulus package until the end of the year. Meanwhile, providers are hesitant to invest in technology before they feel certain they are investing in IT that will help them gain recovery funding.
Stakeholders are frustrated at how much needs to be done – and too quickly – in order for providers to get a boost that would help fund their IT adoption.
At the same time, surely there is a sigh of relief among stakeholders that the $20 billion down-payment encouraged by the healthcare IT-loving Obama administration is already a done deal. At least that much is secure. During his campaign, Obama said he would like to see a $50 billion investment in health IT over the next 10 years. I wonder how he feels about that estimate now as he faces brawls across America over health reform. Is there hope of getting the remaining $30 billion?
The medical world is still so mired in paper. It is fairly difficult for some Americans – especially those living in areas without broadband access – to picture electronic records, let alone the exchange of electronic health data between one provider and another.
When healthcare IT enters the health reform debate, as it often does, it enters as one of the good guys – the answer to how we are going to trim costs, eliminate errors, reduce duplicate medical tests. But it is still a vague and futuristic concept to some Americans.
Though Republicans and Democrats alike promote the advancement of healthcare IT, it is definitely riding the tide with the president’s reputation. Where he goes, it goes. (And by it, I mean IT.)
So, for the sake of the Medicare recipient with five chronic illnesses to manage, the over-extended nurse trying to provide good care on a her third 12-hour shift, the doctor who wants to check up on all of his diabetes patients and the providers who use a health repository to learn how to decrease trends in diseases – for all these people and more, let’s hope healthcare IT will maintain a place high on the American priority list, despite the wicked battles that are playing out in health reform.
