Rep. Stark Would Push Health IT Using Medicare Bonuses/Penalties For Physicians
This article was originally published in The Pink Sheet Daily
Executive Summary
Incentives recognize that payers will receive significant benefit from information gathered but physician participation is crucial.
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Physicians could receive up to $41,000 in Medicare bonuses over five years by being early adopters of electronic health information technology, under House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark's, D-Calif., legislation. The incentives recognize that the payer community will accrue many of the financial benefits from a universal health IT system but physician participation is required. Given Medicare's position as the nation's leading health care payer, it should help provide the incentives to adopt the new system, a Stark aide said. The congressman was planning to introduce the Health-e Information Technology Act Sept. 15. Pharmaceutical stakeholders have seen potential in health IT to provide real-time data on the outcomes of medication use, support post-marketing safety studies, and generate the data needed for FDA's Sentinel safety network. The incentives approach takes its cue electronic prescribing provisions of Medicare Improvements to Patients and Providers Act, with bonuses in the early years and penalties later on (1 (Also see "Medicare E-Prescribing Payments Will Piggyback Onto CMS’ Physician Quality Reporting Initiative" - Pink Sheet, 21 Jul, 2008.)). In 2013, a physician could receive $15,000 in added Medicare payment for using a certified health IT program. The annual incentives would be $12,000 in 2014, $8,000 in 2015, $4,000 in 2016 and $2,000 in 2016. Hospitals also would be eligible for incentive payments using a formula based on Medicare utilization. Penalties for not using health IT would begin in 2016 under Stark's bill. The penalty would start at a 1 percent reduction in Medicare allowable charges that year, and increase over time to 3 percent. The proposal includes grant programs to help providers such as non-profit facilities or those in medically underserved areas participate in health IT and requires the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to develop standards for health IT systems. It also includes various penalties for using health IT to violate patient privacy. Stark's bill is in line with recommendations from Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag. At a July 24 Ways and Means Committee hearing, he recommended a "carrot and stick" approach as used in e-prescribing, saying that positive incentives mainly work for those already on the verge of adopting a new system. Stark's bill is unlikely to see action until next year, given the short time left in the current congressional session, but could lay the ground work for next year. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., Ranking Minority Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, and several committee colleagues earlier introduced their own IT bill, H.R. 6357. It provides some incentives for adoption but they are not based on a specific implementation schedule. It also does not contain penalties for not adopting the new technology. -Gregory Twachtman ([email protected]) |