Medicare reform bill gives nod to IT initiatives - Medicare and IT - Brief Article

Health Management Technology, Jan, 2004

The recently passed Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 lends support to national healthcare IT initiatives, but not in mandate form. The reform bill does outline standards for voluntary e-prescribing, but it does not mandate electronic prescription usage itself--as some vendors had hoped and some professional IT trade associations had expected.

The legislation requires the U.S. Departrnent of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish e-prescribing standards by September 2005, based on recommendations from the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS). A one-year pilot to test the standards will foliow in 2006, with a final report from the secretary of HHS to Congress due by April 2007. That means final e-prescription standards still might be four years away, in 2008.

A second, significant portion of the bill requests a comprehensive study on drug safety and quality from IOM. The bill does not specifically address IT, but it does require IOM to review the nature and causes of medication errors, how they impact patients, and prevention efforts among patient populations, care settings and clinicians. The study will also review how often such errors occur and their financial impacts in the clinical setting.

For the full text of the bill, visit www.rsleads.com/401ht-222.>

COPYRIGHT 2004 Nelson Publishing

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