A new technology legislation that has provisions for incentive for using health IT and disincentives, if one fails to follow provisions of health IT as purposed by Rep. Pete Stark, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s health subcommittee on September 15th.
The bill as stated, the Health-e Information Technology Act of 2008 is expected to increase privacy protection for health information and advises Health and Human Services Department to make a low-cost, open –source, standards-compliant health IT system till 2012.
As in case bill is passed through the legislation, the doctors as well as hospital both will be paid with incentive payments in form of Medicare bonus fees- up to $40, 000 over five years for doctors and amounting up to million dollars for hospitals for using e-medical record system. In order to ensure security, the bill is provided with strict laws and enforcement rules and anyone found guilty of breaching security would be penalized under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
“It shuts down the secondary market that has emerged around the sale and mining of patient health information by prohibiting the sale of patient information and applying stiff penalties to any individual or entity that uses or discloses health information in an unauthorized way,” as said by the Stark.
