Bill seeks to assist doctors in buying health technology

Trying to accelerate physician adoption of electronic medical records, Rep. Jon C. Porter (R, Nev.) has introduced legislation to establish a trust fund to help doctors buy EMRs.

Under the bill, introduced March 2, private companies would be allowed to contribute into a trust fund operated by the Office of Personnel Management that would award grants to help doctors pay for EMRs. The bill would exempt the trust fund from Stark and antitrust laws, removing legal barriers that prevent many parties from giving or helping doctors acquire such systems, Porter said.

A major reason Porter said he introduced the bill, co-sponsored by Rep. William L. Clay Jr. (D, Mo.), is that as small business owners, doctors need more help than other industry players, such as insurers.

To help spur adoption, Porter's bill would require health plans participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to provide electronic personal health records to all 8 million participants -- federal employees and their families.

Under the terms of their contracts with OPM, insurers are required to set aside 4% of the value of their contract into a reserve fund. The bill would allow insurers to take out 1% of that money to help defray their cost of providing personal health records to federal employees and their families.

Though the AMA has not yet articulated a position on the bill, at last year's Annual Meeting, the House of Delegates passed a resolution supporting "legislation and other appropriate initiatives that provide positive incentives for physicians to acquire health information technology," and the pursuit of "legislative and regulatory changes to obtain an exception to any and all laws that would otherwise prohibit financial assistance to physicians" purchasing such technology.

In a letter dated Mar. 15, America's Health Insurance Plans President and CEO Karen Ignagni told Porter that it's "premature" to establish a personal health record mandate. "The bill as proposed will create proliferation of numerous PHR models and make standardization and interoperability very difficult to achieve."