Congress sends health IT back to drawing board

Safe harbors for technology donations to physicians are likely off the table as Democrats shift focus to IT grant money.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Jan. 1/8, 2007.

Washington -- Capitol Hill's leading health information technology legislation for 2006 died a slow death, but lawmakers are hoping for a reincarnation of sorts in 2007.

Congress was unable to come to an agreement on the health IT issue before adjourning in December, despite spending about five months trying to bridge the gap between two significantly different Senate and House bills. The Wired for Health Care Quality Act passed the Senate in November 2005, and the Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006 passed the House last July.

In the end, disagreements were too pronounced between House and Senate leaders over setting safe harbors for health IT donations to doctors, providing grants to technology adopters, and updating diagnostic code sets used by hospitals and physicians. This year, lawmakers will go back to the drawing board and craft new legislation rather than reintroduce the same bills that ground to a halt in negotiations between the houses, congressional aides and lobbyists said.

The new Democratic majority in both chambers will play a large part in determining how information technology priorities will be handled. In the House, Democrats who were largely kept out of the loop when the legislation was developed last year will have more of a say in how the issue resurfaces now that they control the agenda, Bridgett Taylor, chief Democratic aide on the House Ways and Means Committee, said at a recent Alliance for Health Reform briefing.