July 27, 2006

Pryce: Health IT Bill Will Help Reduce Medical Errors, Improve Health Care

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) today said the Health Information Technology Promotion Act, which the House passed today, will help update our medical record-keeping system for the 21 st century. The Health Information Technology Promotion Act is part of the Suburban Agenda put forward by the House Suburban Agenda Caucus, of which Pryce is a member.

“The Institute of Medicine estimates that 1.5 million Americans become ill or are injured or killed each year because of medical errors. And as we learned during Hurricane Katrina, paper medical records are also vulnerable to natural disasters like floods and fires,” Pryce said. “This is an unacceptable situation – people who are ill should be worried about getting well, not making sure that their medical records are secure and their prescriptions are filled correctly.

“The legislation we passed today will help address these problems by paving the way for interoperable health information technologies like electronic medical records and e-prescribing systems. These technologies, and others like them, will help reduce the number of medical errors and improve health care for all Americans.”

Among other things, H.R. 4157, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act, does the following:

• Updates outdated diagnosis coding systems for the 21 st century;
• Promotes cooperation between states and the federal government to increase the security of medical records;
• Provides grants to promote the use of health information technology in small physician practices and for the uninsured; and
• Provides for a national framework for the use of interoperable health information technology.