On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee released an $825 economic stimulus proposal that includes $20 billion for health IT, Health Data Management reports (Goedert, Health Data Management, 1/15).
The committee is expected to take action on the bill next week.
According to a committee report accompanying the draft of the bill, the $20 billion allocation for health IT is designed "to prevent medical mistakes, provide better care to patients and introduce cost-saving efficiencies."
Money Allocation
Of the $20 billion, $2 billion would go to HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (Ferris, Government Health IT, 1/15).
ONCHIT could use the funding to:
- Invest in IT architecture supporting health information exchanges and the national health information network;
- Provide grants to help health care providers adopt health IT products; and
- Train health care providers and IT professionals (Health Data Management, 1/15).
Some experts said that there are reports that at least some of the remaining $18 billion would be used to provide health IT grants to states (Government Health IT, 1/15).
In addition, Indian Health Services, community health centers and the Social Security Administration will receive significant funding to upgrade their health IT systems (Health Data Management, 1/15).
A majority of health IT funding likely will fall under the jurisdiction of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has authority over Medicare, Modern Healthcare reports (DoBias, Modern Healthcare, 1/15).
Senate Action
The Senate is drafting its own economic stimulus package (Government Health IT, 1/15).
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said that the Senate Appropriations Committee's mark up of the economic stimulus bill likely would occur before February. She declined to say whether the Senate version of the bill would include the $20 billion for health IT (Noyes, CongressDaily, 1/15).