Originally published December 7 2005
New bill could revolutionize healthcare information industry
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The U.S. Senate has passed the Wired for Health Care Quality Act, which promotes a collaboration between the Health and Human Services Department that will streamline the massively ineffective information technology systems currently used in healthcare.
The Wired for Health Care Quality Act encourages the Health and Human Services Department to form a public-private partnership to identify ways to streamline the health-care system's information technology.
Hospitals and other health-care providers could apply for grants to help them implement new technologies.
It would "bring a health-care system really into the modern century through information and technology," Kennedy told reporters.
Dr. Deborah Peel, president of the watchdog group Patient Privacy Rights, complained that the bill doesn't include enough protections to keep personal information out of the hands of people who shouldn't have it -- such as employers, who could use it to discriminate against employees and potential hires.
"There's no recognition of every American's fundamental right to make a decision as to who can see medical information about them," she said.
Kennedy and Enzi said their bill provides plenty of built-in protections.
About 10,000 Americans have already made their health records electronic and accessible anywhere using the internet with a free online service.
And 60 people have had computer chips implanted into their arms to provide access to their electronic medial records, according VeriChip, a Delray Beach, Florida, company that received Food and Drug Administration approval last year to market the chips.
Doctors have been slow to join the digital revolution.
A Rand study published this year found that as of 2002 only between 10 percent and 16.4 percent of the nation's physicians had adopted electronic medical record technology.
Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have their own legislation that would provide $4 billion in grants and tax incentives for health-care providers to invest in digitalizing health information.
funding will have to be put in place," Enzi said.
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