With key technical standards now in place, the time has arrived for the federal government to start using its buying power to promote the adoption of health IT, says Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt in a Health Affairs web exclusive interview published Dec. 4.
In a conversation with Leonard Schaeffer, founding chairman and CEO, WellPoint Inc., and former administrator of HCFA (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Leavitt says that the Bush administration opted for setting standards through "a hard, collaborative process" using the American Health Information Community, a federal advisory panel with both public and private representation.
But once interoperability standards are developed, "the second job is to get adoption," Leavitt says. "At some point in time, the federal government needs to say, ‘If you’re going to do business with us, you will adopt a system of your choice that will allow these standards to be met’." Leavitt cautions, however, "We can’t just go out and by fiat say, ‘By Jan. 1, 2010, everyone must have . . . ,’ because we’re talking about a huge sociological change. Not just in systems, but in the way clinicians practice and the way people are accustomed to dealing with each other--interfacing." Read the interview.
