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The 112th Congress met for the first time on January 5, with Republicans making their first order of business a repeal of the healthcare reform law. Experts say if that were to happen, it should not have a major effect on health IT.
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the new House Majority Leader, launched the GOP offensive during the first week in January with a bill titled "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" (H.R. 2). Most observers are calling a vote on the bill a symbolic gesture because it would be unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the bill would increase the federal deficit by $145 billion.
Rep. Phil Gingrey, MD (R-Ga.), a strong proponent of healthcare IT advancement, said, "the repeal of Obamacare is essential to ensure that physicians and patients are provided meaningful healthcare reform without the current high costs and government infringement."
"Part of creating comprehensive reform is supporting health information technology systems, which will immensely improve communication in the healthcare industry and would save as much as $162 billion annually," Gingrey said. "In order to move our country forward, we need to withdraw the unwanted $1 trillion Obamacare bill and encourage cost-effective and smart measures, like broad adoption of health IT."
Justin Barnes, chairman emeritus of the EHR Association, said it’s unlikely that stimulus funding established in the HITECH Act for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive program would come under fire "anytime soon" if the healthcare reform law were repealed.
"It's finally starting to sink in … that whatever healthcare transformation we are going to see in this country is going to be built on healthcare IT," he said. It wouldn't make sense for the House to attack or modify the EHR incentive program because of the catastrophic consequences it would produce, he said.
There are six newly elected Republican physicians in the 112th Congress. Newt Gingrich, the former GOP House Speaker, said these physicians would play an important role in Republican proposals for healthcare reform. "We can't just talk about repeal; we have to decide where we want to go from here," he said. "We are all committed to health IT, and we want it to be doctor-centric."
