Health Info Tech Will Transform U.S. Health Care System

America's business community should care about overhauling America's health care system because the current system is costing lives and money and is straining the economy. That was the message delivered at a one-day forum, "No More Excuses: Business and Health Information Technology," held here Sept. 15.

We're paying twice what other industrialized nations are paying for health care, and they are kicking our butt" when it comes to returns on that investment, said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., the forum's opening speaker. "Our (health care) system is not designed to get the best possible outcomes for patients at the lowest possible cost."

The forum, sponsored by the National Chamber Foundation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, brought together nearly 100 senior government officials, health care stakeholders and business leaders to discuss the economic benefits of a nationwide interoperable electronic health record network.

Other high-profile speakers included David Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., HHS' coordinator of national health information technology, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, founder of the Center for Health Transformation. David C. Kibbe, M.D., director of AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology, participated in a panel discussion about the economic impact of upgrading the country's health care system.

Kennedy, co-sponsor of the 21st Century Health Information Act, one of several health IT bills now before Congress, said the latest research information and disease management protocols need to be at physicians' fingertips because "when doctors don't have all the right information, they make bad decisions."

You are paying for those costly errors, Kennedy told the audience. For business owners, some of those costs show up in higher health insurance premiums and lost employee workdays.

Who's being asked to pay for revamping our vast health care system by implementing EHRs? America's physicians, said panelist John Rother, AARP's director for policy and strategy, adding that physicians won't reap the savings. "Physicians are looking at the need to invest in new technology, and it may not present them any opportunity to increase their own incomes," said Rother.

That's not news to FPs, most of whom are well aware of the cost of purchasing and maintaining EHRs. Rother and other speakers stressed the need for financial incentives --such as pay-for-performance programs -- to encourage physicians to make the investment in health IT.

During his presentation to the group, Brailer praised the human components of America's health care system. "We have the best innovation, the best research and the best health care professionals in the world," said Brailer "What we're dealing with is a systems problem."

Health IT costs money, "but the net economic benefits are in the hundreds of billions of dollars," said Brailer.

He noted that the health care industry must ask itself the same question private business asks every day: "How can we create more value for our customers?" Business leaders don't understand physicians' reluctance to invest in health IT, said Brailer. "Then we tell them about reimbursement, and they can't believe it."

During another panel discussion, Kibbe called the role of the government a two-edged sword. "Understand the barriers, but please don't get in the way of letting the market solve them," he said. "If the market is behaving efficiently, let's not change it." On the other hand, the government should push when necessary to move things along, said Kibbe.

Brailer and Gingrich spoke with a sense of urgency and both referred to Hurricane Katrina as an example of the deficiencies of a paper-based system.

"There's no more vivid, explosive case story for EHRs than Katrina," said Gingrich. "It makes zero sense not to do something now. Ask your legislators this question: How many Americans need to die before we get this done? And then don't back off an inch."

I've spent a lot of my life trying to change things, said Gingrich. "You get to a point where impatience is good, and I believe we're at that tipping point." He urged immediate, decisive steps to reform America's health care system through health IT. The Gingrich timeline: "Anything longer than two years is totally irresponsible."