Summary of Amendment Submitted to the Rules Committee on
H.R. 4157 - HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROMOTION ACT OF 2006

(in alphabetical order)

SUMMARY OF AMENDMENTS

(summaries derived from information provided by sponsors)

Christensen (VI) #14
Ensures that H.R. 4157 will monitor and measure racial, ethnic, and geographic health disparities.

Cuellar (TX) #12
Focuses a priority of the integrated health system grant program on the improved coordination of care for the uninsured, underinsured, and medically underserved residing in geographically isolated areas or underserved urban areas.

Dingell (MI)/Rangel (NY) #16
Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute. Based on the Senate-passed bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Frist, Enzi, Kennedy, and Clinton. Also includes privacy protections necessary where information will be more vulnerable to breach by thieves and others. Promotes technology through greater direct funding for providers, as opposed to changing the Stark self-referral and anti-kickback fraud and abuse laws. Also provides privacy protections beyond those in current law to ensure that patients' health information is secure.

Eshoo (CA) #1
Accelerates the adoption of Health Information Technology interoperability standards from 3 years to 18 months; requires the Department of Health and Human Services to purchase interoperable HIT products in its own procurement; and requires the HIT National Coordinator to develop a system of voluntary certification of HIT products to ensure they comply with standards endorsed by HHS.

Gingrey (GA) #23
(LATE) Strikes section 105 providing for grants to physician offices that purchase health information technology and substitutes tax incentives through section 179 of the tax code.

Gingrey (GA) #24
(LATE) Provides for tax incentives through section 179 of the tax code to physician offices that purchase health information technology.

Green, Gene (TX)/Gonzalez (TX)/Rush (IL) #11
Authorizes a Medicare add-on payment, a competitive grant program and a state loan program to further the adoption of interoperable health information technology. Authorizes $116 million in FY 2007, $141 million in FY2008 and such sums as necessary through 2011.

Hinojosa (TX) #9
Improves the availability of information and resources for individuals with low literacy.

Hinojosa (TX) #10
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Service to create a grant program to increase information technology in medically underserved urban and rural areas.

Jackson (IL) #21
Ensures that emergency contact information or next of kin information is included in any process to modernize medical records.

Jackson-Lee (TX) #18
(REVISED) Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to promulgate regulations clearly defining standards, certification, and inspection requirements for health information technology products, exchanges, and architectures, and other purposes.

Kennedy, Patrick (RI) #8
Makes grants available to leverage health care stakeholder collaborative investments in (1) physician adoption of health information technologies and (2) the development of regional health information networks that provide for the secure, seamless exchange of health information.

Kennedy, Patrick (RI) #6
Requires the Secretary of HHS to work with consensus-building organizations to develop measures of health care quality and efficiency.

Kennedy, Patrick (RI) #7
Eliminates the bill’s exceptions to anti-fraud and consumer protection statutes and replaces them with a sense of the Congress that hospitals and other stakeholders that want to promote physicians’ health information technology adoption should work through collaborative entities to ensure that consumer protections are not undermined.

Markey (MA)/Doggett (TX)/Kennedy, Patrick (RI)/Capps (CA)/Emanuel (IL) #17
Gives patients the power to keep their medical records out of electronic databases unless they first give their permission. Requires patients to be notified if their health information in the system is lost, stolen, or used for an unauthorized purpose. Enables patients to seek damages from individuals and entities that improperly obtain or disclose individually-identifiable health information. Requires the use of data safeguards such as encryption. Permits patients to limit access to particularly sensitive information in their medical records. Continues to allow States to have more protective privacy laws.

McMorris (WA)/Smith, Adam (WA) #2
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a two year project to demonstrate the impact of health information technology on disease management for chronic disease sufferers within the Medicaid population.There is no authorization of funding and it requests a report at the conclusion of the demonstration.

Porter (NV) #20
Provides for the implementation of a system of electronic health records under the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program.

Price, Tom (GA) #5
Clarifies that the purpose of any changes to medical coding is for diagnosis documentation or billing use only.

Stupak (MI)/Walden (OR)/Pomeroy (ND)/Emerson (MO) #19
Authorizes $20 million for FY 2007, $30 million for FY 2008, and such sums as may be necessary for FY 2009-2011 but not to exceed $30 million for the following purposes: 1) grants for rural providers for the purchase, adoption, implementation and maintenance of health IT; and, 2) grants to States to establish evolving loan funds that leverage private dollars for the purchase, adoption, implementation and maintenance of health IT.

Sweeney (NY) #15
Authorizes $25 million to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to distribute grants to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to utilize Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) technology.

Towns (NY) #13
Creates a study that provides benchmarks for best practices and cost effectiveness for the use of Health Information Technology in medically underserved areas.

Wilson, Joe (SC) #22
Strikes sections 404 (Methodology for reporting uniform price data for inpatient and outpatient hospital services) and 405 (Inclusion of uniform price data).

Wynn (MD)/Rush (IL)/Solis (CA)/Engel (NY)/Cardin (MD)/Schakowsky (IL) #4
Authorizes funding and culturally and linguistically appropriate technical assistance for disproportionate share hospitals, Federally qualified health centers and networks, governmentally owned hospitals, nonprofit hospitals that have a low-income utilization rate of 65% or higher, primary care associations, and other entities as deemed appropriate by the Secretary to facilitate the adoption of interoperable health information technology. Authorizes $120 million for FY 07, $140 million for FY 08, and such sums as necessary for FYs 09-11. Also authorizes a GAO study within one year of enactment to identify the financial and technical needs of communities that utilize the above entities.

Wynn (MD)/Cardin (MD) #3
Authorizes the Institute of Medicine and the National Library of Medicine to jointly conduct a health information technology workforce assessment study, to determine the nation’s current and future health information technology workforce requirements, in general and with respect to diversity. Authorizes such sums as necessary.