The task force, led by Representatives Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.), is encouraging implementation of HIT to reduce costs and support new, integrated delivery models. The task force emphasized the importance of providing small practices with access to the training and technology necessary for meaningful use and suggested the following strategies to do so:
1. Foster an HIT marketplace in which small practices, hospitals and providers in disadvantaged communities can purchase and become meaningful users of HIT systems and reduce financial risks associated with these investments.
2. Ensure available systems will enable providers to comply with meaningful use standards.
3. Incentivize regional extension centers to seek out providers most in need of the technical assistance, guidance and information on best practices to become meaningful users of electronic health records.
4. Ensure meaningful use standards have an appropriate balance between inputs and outcomes.
The other three principles for supporting HIT include structuring Medicare to reward quality and reduce costs; facilitating public-private projects that increase efficiency; and modernizing the FDA approval process for treatments and technologies.
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