Stakeholders in the health care industry are lining up with recommendations for the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama on the best ways to fund health information technology efforts. Some of them share their views in an iHealthBeat Special Report by Deirdre Kennedy.
The Special Report includes comments from:
- Bob Doherty, senior vice president of government affairs and policy for the American College of Physicians;
- Dave Roberts, HIMSS vice president of government relations; and
- Robert Zirkelbach, spokesperson for America's Health Insurance Plans.
ACP is predicting a catastrophic shortage of primary care physicians unless the federal government moves quickly to help them. One of the best ways to help, the group says, is to provide funding for health IT.
"There are specific kinds of information technology that help physicians manage and coordinate care for patients, manage chronic disease effectively, that help them remind patients to get services they need," Doherty said.
"The focus of any HIT incentives, any stimulus bill, should really be to give primary care physicians the tools to do that effectively," Doherty added (Kennedy, iHealthBeat, 1/5).
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