Doctor organizations' concerns put brakes on health IT bill

The medical societies say quality measures should be developed in an open process with doctors' input.

By Dave Hansen, AMNews staff. Dec. 10, 2007.

Washington -- An attempt to quickly pass a Senate health information technology bill was derailed after medical groups raised concerns about its quality measurement, patient privacy and funding provisions.

Senators in mid-November considered but could not agree on "hotlining" the bill, a term for passing it by unanimous consent without formal floor debate, said Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee spokesman Michael Mahaffey.

Mahaffey declined to specify the disagreements but said the most serious was whether the bill, the Wired for Health Care Quality Act, contained adequate patient privacy protections. The delay occurred after the American Medical Association and 35 other physician organizations sent a Nov. 9 letter expressing their concerns to the legislation's main sponsors, Sens. Hillary Clinton (D, N.Y.), Edward Kennedy (D, Mass.), Mike Enzi (R, Wyo.) and Judd Gregg (R, N.H.).

The legislation would establish a board to determine HIT interoperability standards and require federal agencies to adopt them. It would give the Health and Human Services secretary the authority to create quality measures and doctor-specific reports on performance on the measures.

Quality measures should be developed in a transparent process that involves physicians and other stakeholders, the physician organizations wrote.