House GOP Leaders Express Concern that Nearly $10 Billion in Health IT Spending May Have Been Wasted

House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA), and Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger (R-CA) called on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to immediately suspend the distribution of incentive payments related to the Electronic Health Records (EHR) program.

The top House policymakers on healthcare are concerned that HHS is squandering taxpayer dollars by asking little of providers in return for incentive payments. Recent reports revealed that the EHR program may be leading to higher Medicare spending and greater inefficiencies while doing little, if anything, to improve health outcomes. The members urged Secretary Sebelius to halt the incentive payments and delay penalties for providers who choose not to integrate Health Information Technology (HIT) into their practice until the agency increases what is expected of Meaningful Users and has a clear plan and expectation for interoperability. A recent survey of clinicians concluded that more work must be done to improve electronic HIT standards with more than 70 percent of respondents reporting “a lack of interoperability” as a major barrier that impairs them from sharing information in an electronic setting.