ENSURING THE ADOPTION OF HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS

 

WHEREAS, the June of 2009 White House Council of Economic Advisors report “The Economic Case for Health Care Reform” notes U.S. health care expenditures are currently 18% of GDP and without change will rise to one-third of the nation’s total output by 2040; and

 

WHEREAS, the 2000 RAND Corporation “Projection of Chronic Illness Prevalence and Cost Inflation” report indicated more than 125 million Americans had at least one chronic health condition in 2000 and by 2020 chronic conditions are expected to impact 157 million Americans; and

 

WHEREAS,  according to the Institute of Medicine preventable medical errors in hospitals cause 120,000 deaths per year and that 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events occur every year; and

 

WHEREAS, according to the Congressional Budget Office, health information technology has the potential to improve both the efficiency and quality of care through the reduction of duplicative tests, medical errors and lower administrative costs; and

 

WHEREAS, health care is an information intensive industry, yet the adoption of information technology lags behind most other sectors of the national economy, according to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Infomatics Association; and

 

WHEREAS, health information technology is one foundation upon which to improve the delivery of health care by presenting physicians and other health care providers with a patient’s medically necessary  information to make critical health care decisions at the point of care, according to a 2006 report in the Annuals of Internal Medicine; and 

 

WHEREAS, electronic prescribing through pharmacy interoperability can significantly reduce the $10,000 spent annually per physician on phone calls with pharmacies related to prescription refills, according to the American College of Cardiology; and

 

WHEREAS, prescribers have been gradually adopting electronic prescribing practices, growing from 19,000 users to 103,000 users during the past two years, according to the 2009 National Progress Report on E-Prescribing; and

 

WHEREAS, the federal Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 provides Medicare incentive payments to users of electronic prescribing in 2009 and 2010; and

 

WHEREAS, the opportunity for growth in adopting health information technologies, such as electronic health information exchanges and electronic prescribing, is evident; and

 

WHEREAS, as the next major frontier, health information exchange and applications call for extensive research related to the return on investment and health outcomes in order to improve the quality of health care delivery; and

 

WHEREAS, the establishment of electronic health information exchanges provide a wide range of functionality that supports physician ordering of medications and laboratory procedures, decision support tools, population health, and disease surveillance; and

 

WHEREAS, state lawmakers introduced more than 370 bills specifically focused on health information technology in an 18-month period between 2007 and 2008, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; and

 

WHEREAS, $19 billion was appropriated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to promote the use of health information technology; and

 

WHEREAS, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology says health information exchanges must be designed to ensure patient privacy and security of shared health information, including a high level of security and auditing capability;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA) supports and encourages state’s efforts to advance the use of health information technology including the creation of utilities to exchange health information, adoption of electronic health records, and electronic prescribing; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the utilities should be interoperable with the National Health Information Exchange and support the sharing of patient information with the appropriate patient consent; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that efforts aimed at the adoption of electronic prescribing and health records programs should ensure the privacy and security of patient information;

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that health care providers should have access to a utility to exchange health information, even if the provider does not have an electronic health record system; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that as states expand efforts to adopt electronic health records systems that these are certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Technology; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that efforts aimed at adoption of electronic prescribing programs should ensure appropriate patient protections are in place, which allow for physician choice and medically necessary product selection;

 

 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this NLGA resolution supports states and regions which have decided to create state or regional research centers to determine the impact of health information technology and applications on health outcomes and the return on investment. 

 

Passed this 30th day of July.

 

Sponsor:  Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, M.D., Kentucky (D)

Co-Sponsor:   Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy, Nebraska (R)

Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger, Montana (R)
Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, Connecticut (R)
Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, Iowa (D)
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, Virginia (R)
Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, Vermont (R)                 Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, Minnesota (R)
Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, Massachusetts (D)         Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, Wisconsin (D)

 

 

 

Contact:

National Lieutenant Governors Association

Director Julia Hurst

(859) 283-1400 or jhurst@csg.org