Interest in health care information technology by state governments is growing steadily, and state-backed health IT projects rank high on governors' proposed state agendas, according to a report from Input, a government business research company.
So far this year, 27 percent of governors who delivered state-of-the-state speeches mentioned potential benefits of health IT, such as increased efficiency, patient safety and quality of care – up from 14 percent last year, the firm said.
Input’s analysis covered IT priorities as reflected in all governors’ state progress reports delivered this year.
Support for electronic health records, e-prescribing and interoperable data banks is increasing even as state economies falter and budgets are strapped for cash. In fact, state governors may be pushing harder for health IT projects because of the belt-tightening rather than in spite of it, said Timothy Brett, Input’s senior manager of state and local information services, and author of the report.
“The economic downturn drives the need for efficiency and the desire to cut down on waste,” Brett said in an interview. “Even with the economy where it is, governors have looked to technology initiatives as a way to help them save money.”
For instance, in Idaho’s state-of-the-state speech, Gov. Butch Otter proposed the creation of a health data exchange in cooperation with Blue Cross, Regence Blue Shield and several large health care providers.
Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont advocated helping physicians to acquire electronic medical record systems, and expressed hope that every physician in the state would use an EMR by the end of 2010. And Gov. Chris Gregoire of Washington promoted an online pharmacy database that would link physicians and pharmacists, thereby reducing the likelihood of medication errors.
Some states are moving forward aggressively with health care IT planning, while others lag much further behind. Minnesota has allotted $18.5 million for HIT projects in its 2008-2009 budget, and Missouri reserved $15 million for projects, including EHR expansion and data analysis for chronic-care patients. On the other hand, Arizona’s budget includes only $274,900 for HIT funding – all for EMR implementation at the Arizona State Hospital, the report said.
In addition, Brett said, rapidly rising Medicaid costs will likely facilitate more IT spending. Some of that could be fueled by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Medicaid Transformation grants it has made to state Medicaid agencies in the last year.
“CMS will likely consider those results to inject more health information technology in future Medicaid rules and regulations to reduce costs,” he said in the report.
Input’s report used state budgets and recent speeches to get an accurate picture of technology projects in all areas of state spending, including education, homeland security, health care and consolidation.
From the battlefield to the home front: Managing medical data
Government Health IT presents Col. Claude Hines Jr., program manager for the Defense Health Information Management System, in this recent InSight eSeminar. Col. Hines discusses the health information technology and tactical challenges faced by the military medical community in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of conflict. In doing so, he describes the current information technology solutions for transferring clinical data between battlefield care givers to health care personnel at military treatment facilities worldwide.
