Healthcare reform is arguably the hot-button political issue of our time. And with the Supreme Court locked and loaded to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act this summer, it’s a safe bet the controversial two-year-old legislation will have a huge impact on the 2012 election and beyond.
But what about health IT? If “Obamacare” has been a lightning rod, sparking historically nasty partisan bickering – Congress vs. President Obama, Republicans vs. Democrats, Fox News vs. MSNBC, the Tea Party vs. MoveOn.org – Washington’s efforts to spur healthcare information technology have enjoyed much broader support, on both sides of the aisle.
Just last week, a Washington think tank whose healthcare wing is led by two erstwhile rival Senate Majority Leaders put its weight behind smarter and more widespread use of technology and data exchange in healthcare organizations nationwide.
“To deliver high-quality, cost-effective care, a physician or hospital needs good information,” said former senator Bill Frist, MD, upon the release of a report, on Jan. 27, from the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT. “Data about patients has to flow across primary care physicians, hospitals, labs, and anywhere that patients receive care.”
