Almost half of respondents to a recent survey by the Health Information and Management Systems Society said they believed that the Wired for Health Care Quality Act (S 1693) would have a limited effect on health IT adoption because of low funding, while only 9% of respondents said the legislation under consideration in Congress would boost health IT adoption substantially.
Beyond the Wired for Health Care Quality Act, health IT professionals also appear skeptical about other federal efforts intended to encourage widespread usage of health IT. For example, 63% of respondents said a CMS pilot program to provide bonus payments to doctors who report quality measures tied to the use of electronic health records would have little effect on health IT usage.
Similarly, more than half of respondents said a federal measure (HR 2406) to fund efforts to create a national database of patient records would have only a slight effect on health IT usage.
Results are based on a November 2007 survey of 111 health IT professionals.
Source: HIMSS