As I write this column in late August, Congress is on summer recess and Washington seems to be asleep in the hot afternoon sun. But appearances aren't what they seem. There is some exciting healthcare IT legislation brewing on Capitol Hill that just might make a spark come fall.
Just before recess, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) introduced a bill that would ease incentive qualifications for early adopters of electronic health records.
The Ensuring Equality for Early EHR Adoption Act of 2010 (H.R.6005) would allow healthcare providers who are eligible for meaningful use incentives in 2011 and 2012 to use their existing EHRs without having them certified.
This would be a huge break to providers who already have advanced systems that can collect the data required under the meaningful use rule, without forcing them to purchase new systems or upgrade the ones they have now.
According to Capitol Hill sources, this bill could be tucked into another larger bill for passage.
There is another law brewing that would mean millions in incentive payments for hospitals. Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) introduced the Electronic Health Record Incentives for Multi-Campus Hospitals (H. R. 6072) on July 30 that would allow each hospital in a multi-campus organization to qualify separately for meaningful use incentives. Today, a multi-campus organization can apply for a single incentive payment for the entire campus unless each facility has a separate federal provider number.
According to the final meaningful use rule, the hospital EHR incentive payment formula incorporates both a $2 million base amount and a $200 per discharge amount for the 1,150th through 23,000th discharge. The bill would allow health systems to choose whether they want to receive base payments for each campus and one per-discharge sum, or one base payment for the entire organization with additional per-discharge amounts for each campus.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced the matching Senate bill (S. 3708) on Aug. 5. Both bills have been referred to committees for consideration.
American Hospital Association Vice President Rick Pollack applauded the bills. "Providing these payments to only one hospital in a multi-hospital system would not accurately account for the implementation and training costs of EHRs across different institutions; nor would it accurately reflect differences in clinical services provided at different sites," he said.
