Stark health IT bill expected in coming days
Executive Summary
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health Chairman Pete Stark, D-Calif., is expected to introduce health information technology legislation in the coming days. A staffer for Stark declined to comment on specific contents, but said a July Ways and Means hearing on universal health technology did "shape this bill." During that hearing, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag suggested that Congress adopt a "carrot and stick" incentive program for adoption of electronic health records, similar to the Medicare Improvements Act's incentives for use of electronic prescribing (1"The Pink Sheet," Aug. 4, 2008, p. 24)