On Wednesday, leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee joined representatives from the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs, to call for the passage of the Wired for Healthcare Quality Act (S 1693), Government Health IT reports.
In December 2007, the bill was nearly passed by special measures that do not require an open floor debate, but since then the legislation has been stagnant (Manos, Healthcare IT News, 4/3).
Senate HELP committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) and ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), ranking member of the Senate HELP committee, said the bill has stalled because of disagreements over how to address the privacy of electronic health records.
"We are basically stalemated with privacy protections in the Judiciary Committee," Kennedy said. However, he said that he does not expect much opposition from the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over some health care issues.
Enzi said there "will be data security," but it does not have to be written into law. He added that it would be a mistake to include too many privacy and security protections in the legislation.
Details of the Bill
The Wired for Health Care Quality Act would:
- Legally establish the National Coordinator for Health IT in HHS;
- Create a public-private partnership to make recommendations to HHS on technical issues of health IT standards and certification;
- Require privacy protections and notifications of data breaches;
- Provide grants and loans to providers for health IT adoption; and
- Help create health performance measures.
The bill was approved by the Senate Health Committee last year but has not advanced since then. A similar bill has also stalled in the House.
Some observers say Congress is unlikely to approve major legislation after mid-year because of the presidential election (Ferris,
Government Health IT, 4/3).