House Committee Passes HIT Bill

admin — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 10:50:48 -0500

The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee has approved H.R. 4157, the Health Information Technology (IT) Promotion Act of 2006.

The bill will now go to a conference committee where differences between it and a Senate HIT bill introduced last year will be worked out. Following that, each chamber will vote on the reconciled bill.

H.R. 4157 would do the following:

ONCHIT — codifies the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (IT) and delineates its responsibilities to coordinate federal HIT efforts.
Stark/Anti-Kickback Safe Harbors — Allows entities, including hospitals and group practices, to provide physicians with hardware, software, or related services used for the electronic exchange of clinical health information.

ONCHIT Gets New Director

admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:12:24 -0400

The well-regarded chief health informatics officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs has moved over to become the new interim national coordinator of health information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Robert Kolodner, a career employee of the Veterans Health Administration who has led the development of the VA's e-medical records (EMRs) systems, becomes the second person to lead ONCHIT. For more on this story, click here.