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News Release
============

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343

Thompson Launches "Decade of Health Information Technology"

Strategic Report Outlines Steps to Implement Widespread Adoption of
Electronic Health Records and New Nationwide Interoperable Health
Information Network

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today released the first outline of a
10-year plan to transform the delivery of health care by building a
new health information infrastructure, including electronic health
records and a new network to link health records nationwide. At the
same time, he announced a number of new action steps to help advance
health information technology immediately

"America needs to move much faster to adopt information technology in
our health care system," Secretary Thompson said as he released the
action report ordered by President Bush. "Electronic health
information will provide a quantum leap in patient power, doctor
power, and effective health care. We can't wait any longer."

The plan, prepared by the new National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology, David J. Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., lays out the
broad steps needed to achieve always-current, always-available
electronic health records (EHR) for Americans. EHR systems would also
enable physicians and other health professionals to electronically tap
into a wealth of treatment information as they care for patients. The
report was released in Washington, D.C., at a Secretarial Summit on
Health Information Technology bringing together the nation's
technology and health leaders.

"Health information technology can improve quality of care and reduce
medical errors, even as it lowers administrative costs," Secretary
Thompson said. "It has the potential to produce savings of 10 percent
of our total annual spending on health care, even as it improves care
for patients and provides new support for health care professionals."
At the same time, security and privacy of electronic medical records
would be improved over protections of paper-based records, Secretary
Thompson said. And health information technology also offers much
greater access and control of health records by consumers themselves.

Secretary Thompson announced he would appoint a special Leadership
Panel to assess total costs and benefits of health information
technology and report to him by fall. He also announced efforts
underway to develop private sector certification for health
information technology products. And he said HHS will begin reviewing
the feasibility of a private sector consortium to plan and develop a
new nationwide network for health information.

In addition, Secretary Thompson announced Medicare plans to create an
Internet portal allowing beneficiaries to access their personal
Medicare information. And he said Medicare will accelerate regulations
for e-prescribing of drugs in order to quickly disseminate common
standards. He also announced new grants to help develop information
exchanges in nine communities, adding that $50 million more in seed
funding will be provided to five states this fall, with plans doubling
the investment in 2005.

President Bush in April called for electronic health records for most
Americans within 10 years. In an executive order, he created the new
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology,
and in May, David J. Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., was appointed to the new
position.

"President Bush has identified health information technology as one of
the most important technology areas for America's future," Dr. Brailer
said. "This report lays down a foundation for achieving this national
priority and moves us from a period of discussion into a period of
rapid action."

Goals and Strategies

The report, "The Decade of Health Information Technology: Delivering
Consumer-centric and Information-Rich Health Care," says federal
leadership can help hasten efforts to be carried out by the private
sector. The report identifies four major goals, with strategic action
areas for each:

Goal 1 - "Inform Clinical Practice:" Bringing information tools to
 the point of care, especially by investing in EHR systems in
 physician offices and hospitals.

Goal 2 - "Interconnect Clinicians:" Building an interoperable
 health information infrastructure, so that records follow the
 patient and clinicians have access to critical health care
 information when treatment decisions are being made.

Goal 3 - "Personalize Care:" Using health information technology
 to give consumers more access and involvement in health decisions.

Goal 4 - "Improve Population Health:" Expanding capacity for
 public health monitoring, quality of care measurement, and
 bringing research advances more quickly into medical practice.

In addition, the report identifies potential policy options for
providing incentives for EHR adoption. The health sector has been slow
to invest in EHRs, with only 13 percent of hospitals reporting they
had the systems in 2002, and 14 to 28 percent of physicians'
practices. Some incentive options to be reviewed include:

regional grants and contracts to stimulate EHRs and community
 information exchange systems;

improving availability of low-rate loans for EHR adoption;

updating federal rules on physician self-referral that may
 unintentionally restrict investment and networks;

using Medicare reimbursement to reward use of EHRs;

using demonstration projects to test new concepts in Medicare of
 "paying for performance" -- linking payments to quality of care
 rather than volume of services only.

"This plan sorts out the myriad of issues involved in achieving the
benefits of health information technology, and it lays out a coherent
direction for reaching our goals," Secretary Thompson said.

The report identifies three broad phases of implementation: developing
the market institutions that are needed for a healthy market to exist
in health information technology; encouraging investment both at the
clinical level and in a new national network; and achieving high
quality and performance accountability.

"This approach drives industry-wide change by focusing on the
clinician and the consumer," Dr. Brailer said. "Our goal is to bring
about improvement in health care from the inside out. This
transformation will require the collaborative efforts and leadership
of clinicians, consumers, hospitals, purchasers, payers, technology
companies and informatic thought leaders to make this groundwork for
change a reality."

New Action Announcements

Secretary Thompson announced a range of actions underway or soon to be
launched, which will advance the strategic elements of the
"Framework:"

Appoint a Leadership Panel -- Secretary Thompson will appoint the
panel of executives and leaders to assess the costs and benefits of
health information technology to industry and society. The Health
Information Technology Leadership Panel will deliver a report on these
options to the Secretary no later than fall 2004.

Private sector certification of health information technology products
-- Secretary Thompson said HHS is exploring ways to work with the
private sector to develop product standards for EHR functionality,
interoperability and security. A private sector ambulatory EHR
certification task force is currently being formed. Product
certification is especially important for smaller medical practices
that need to be sure about what they're buying when they invest in EHR
technology.

Funding community health information exchange demonstrations -- HHS'
Health Resources and Services Administration, with the Foundation for
eHealth Initiative, announced $2.3 million in contracts to support the
Connecting Communities for Better Health Program. The program is
providing seed funds to implement health information exchanges,
including the formation of regional health information organizations.

Planning the formation of a private interoperability consortium -- To
begin the process of movement toward a national health information
network, Secretary Thompson announced that HHS will issue a Request
For Information (RFI) this summer, inviting information about the
requirements for private sector consortia that would form to plan,
develop, and operate a health information network.

Requiring standards to facilitate electronic prescribing -- The
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it is
accelerating publication of a regulation laying out the first set of
widely adopted e-prescribing standards in preparation for the
implementation of the new Medicare drug benefit in 2006. The proposed
regulation will be published by CMS this year.

Establishing a Medicare beneficiary portal -- CMS also announced it
will develop a Medicare Beneficiary Portal, an immediate step in
improving consumer access to personal and customized health
information, providing secure health information via the Internet. The
portal will enable authorized beneficiaries to have access to
information about the health care services they have received under
Medicare. The pilot test for the portal will be conducted in Indiana,
beginning this year.

DoD, VA, OPM Reports Included

The President's April executive order also directed the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Office
of Personnel Management (OPM) to report on how they will advance the
adoption of health information technology. Their reports were also
released today.

The VA, collaboratively with DoD, provide joint recommendations in
their report on: lessons learned, the knowledge and technology
transfers to be gained from successful VA/DoD data exchange
initiatives, the adoption of common standards and terminologies to
promote more effective and rapid development of health technologies,
and the development of telehealth technologies to improve care in
rural and remote areas.

The OPM report explores a variety of options to leverage its
purchasing power and alliances to advance the adoption of health
information technology.

The Decade of Health Information Technology report has been published
and is available online the HHS Web site at www.hhs.gov.

###

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials
are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: June 21, 2004

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