December 6th, 2007
New healthcare IT bill going nowhere fast
A bill to promote the use of technology in health care, re-introduced in October, is going nowhere fast.
The Promoting Health Information Technology (HIT) Act co-sponsored by California Democrat Anne Eshoo (left) and Michigan Republican Michael Rogers, would establish a national coordinator within the Health and Human Services Department and create a public-private advisory body to ensure interoperability standards in health IT.
Sounds innocuous, and a bill on the same subject passed the House last year, but this one hasn’t even gone to committee yet, and Congress is within weeks of ending its 2007 session.
The industry, of course, is four-square behind it. Chris Hankin, Sun Microsystems’s Senior Director of Federal Affairs, sent out a tribute when the bill was introduced.
But the bill, now designated as HR 3800, was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce on its introduction and nothing more has come of it.
That committee is chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman. Jon Stewart of The Daily Show has nicknamed Waxman’s other assignment, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform “The House of Wax.”
Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey chairs the subcommittee on health, with Rep. Gene Green of Texas as vice chair. Nathan Deal of Georgia is the ranking Republican member. That committee has been busy on the S-CHIP matter.
What this means is there are sound excuses for inaction, but inaction is what there is.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to ZDNet Healthcare via Email alerts or RSS.
