Group Seeks Sway Over E-Records System

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, which represents 350 technology vendors and 20,000 members, has asked the Obama administration to require that any electronic health-record equipment receiving stimulus funding be certified by a group the association helped to start and run. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, which represents 350 technology vendors and 20,000 members, was a key force behind the decision to include $36.5 billion in the stimulus package to create a nationwide network for medical records. A Washington Post review last week showed that the group, known as HIMSS, worked closely with vendors, health-care researchers and others to create nonprofit advocacy groups and generate research data to convince policymakers that such a system could save tens of billions of dollars, and that the government needed to subsidize Medicare and Medicaid providers to buy the equipment. The government estimates that adoption of electronic health records will yield perhaps $17 billion in savings over the next decade. Now the health information group is urging officials at the Department of Health and Human Services to give an organization called the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, or CCHIT, responsibility for deciding what health records systems are eligible to receive stimulus spending.