Schwartz and Health IT

Interesting article in yesterday's Inquirer -- see Joseph DiStefano's "Stimulus has billions for health technology." Here's an excerpt:

There's $2 billion in loans and grants, and $17 billion in Medicare reimbursement for health-related information-technology spending, says U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Phila.), who represents Northeast Philadelphia and part of Montgomery County. Plus, $10 billion in tech-spending incentives that also could be used for health-care IT.

If online records were such a great idea, why didn't doctors shred manila files long ago? "The savings would have accrued to the insurance companies or the government," Schwartz says. "We had to change the financial incentives" so it helped the doctors and hospitals who have to pay for the tech, too.

[Charlie] Jarvis credits Schwartz, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, with finding a path for medical IT subsidies with a law she wrote last year that provided similar incentives for doctors who wrote online "e-prescriptions."

What's the bill give away? Incentives and financing for doctors ready to "share data by October 2010" will range from around $50,000 for a small practice to "a couple of million, depending on the practice," Jarvis says.

The accompanying photo is a rare shot of Schwartz laughing.

Sorry this is a day late. My e-Inquirer was not [ahem] delivered to my email inbox yesterday and it took this long for me to find the time to read the print.