CQ Politics | Innovations - Search Results

Digitizing Health Records Still a Challenge

September 27, 2008 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Healthcare could be dramatically improved if every doctor a patient ever saw had access to all that patient's health records, which could happen if the records were all digital. But only 15 to 18 percent of U.S. doctors use electronic records, partly because of the upfront costs of going digital. Technology Review talks to Karen Bell, who's in charge of promoting digital records at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about what the problem is.

Web pick posted by Neil Savage, Xconomy.com

Tags: health IT, HHS, Karen Bell, Technology Review

With Google and Microsoft, Patients May Get Plugged-in Soon

September 17, 2008 3:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Ellen Perlman, Governing.com

Call it the Google lift or the Microsoft bump. This spring, these tech powerhouses announced they were entering the field of personal health records, and that has energized other players in the field. It also has set many in the health IT community to thinking: Will the presence of these Internet giants provide the oomph needed to turn the corner on converting patients' paper medical records into a digital system that connects hospitals to doctors and other providers of health care?

Tags: electronical medical records, Google, Governing.com, health IT, Microsoft

Continue reading With Google and Microsoft, Patients May Get Plugged-in Soon .

Changes Await Health Technology Bill

July 25, 2008 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Alex Wayne, CQ Staff

A bill to encourage health providers to adopt electronic medical records could see substantial changes in the Ways and Means Committee before it goes to the House floor, panel members indicated Thursday.

The bill was approved Wednesday by the Energy and Commerce Committee. It would authorize $560 million in grants and loans over five years to encourage hospitals and doctors to buy and install electronic systems for collecting and transmitting health records.

Tags: Alex Wayne, electronical medical records, health IT

Continue reading Changes Await Health Technology Bill.

Budget Chief Orszag: Threats Will Hasten Health IT Adoption

July 17, 2008 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Reed Cooley, CQ Staff

The threat of financial penalties rather than the promise of incentives -- or more simply, the stick, not the carrot -- will spur providers to adopt health information technologies on the widest scale, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter R. Orszag told Congress on Thursday.

"If you want to get to near universal health IT in the near future, meaning the next five years, it's got to be the stick," Orszag said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing to examine possible improvements to quality in the U.S. health care system.

Tags: CBO, Congressional Budget Office, health IT, Peter Orszag, Reed Cooley, Senate Finance Committee

Continue reading Budget Chief Orszag: Threats Will Hasten Health IT Adoption .