U.S. House Passes Healthcare Reform Legislation ~ Health IT Well-Represented

Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed healthcare reform legislation with significant investment in more health IT - H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act - on a vote 219-212. The Senate passed H.R. 3590 on December 24, 2009. President Obama is expected to sign this legislation into law (as early as this Tuesday).

Also last night, the House passed the Reconciliation Act of 2010, H.R. 4872, which makes changes to H.R. 3590. The Senate is expected to consider H.R. 4872 during the week of March 22nd. Senate Democrats will need a simple majority, 51 votes, to pass the legislation.

Below is an brief overview that should suffice most with health IT provisions bolded at the bottom.

Healthcare Reform Legislation, H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872:

• Costs $938 billion over a decade
• Cuts the deficit by $143 billion in the first ten years (2010- 2019)
• Cuts the deficit by $1.2 trillion in the second ten years
• Estimated to reduce annual growth in Medicare expenditures by 1.4 percentage points per year
• Aims to expand health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans
• Aims to provide healthcare coverage to 94 percent of Americans
• Prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions (effective immediately for children and applies to all individuals beginning in 2014)
• Expands Medicaid to cover individuals with income less than133 percent of the federal poverty level, or $29, 327 for a family of four
• Closes the gap in prescription drug coverage
• Prohibits insurance companies from placing lifetime caps on coverage
• Requires health plans to allow young adults, up to age 26, to remain on their parents’ insurance policy
• Increases funding for Community Health Centers
• Provides financial assistance to states to aid in the establishment of offices of health insurance consumer assistance
• Establishes 50 health insurance exchanges, administered by states, through which, small businesses and individuals without employer sponsored insurance coverage could buy coverage
• Offers tax credits to small businesses to make employee coverage more affordable
• Eliminates co-payments for preventive services and exempts preventive services from deductibles under the Medicare program

• Leverages health IT to improve the quality, cost, and access to healthcare. For example, the legislation:
o Supports programs to foster the reporting of quality measures through the use of health IT
o Directs the establishment of standards to facilitate the enrollment of individuals in health plans, as well as standards to enable the determination of an individual’s eligibility and financial responsibility for specific services prior to or at the point of care
o Establishes new programs that apply, among many things, health IT to test new, more effective healthcare delivery models
o Aims to increase the use of health IT in long-term care settings through financial assistance
o Directs the use of health IT in health risk assessments for Medicare beneficiaries
o Establishes incentive payments for health plans and providers that apply health IT in improving healthcare outcomes
o Supports the education and training of health IT among medical students