It's all about health information technology?
GAO (U.S. Government Accountability Office) September 1,2006 Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives Health Information Technology HHS is Continuing Efforts to Define Its National Strategy Statement of David A. Powner
In summary, Mr. Chairman, our work shows that HHS is continuing its efforts to help transform the use of IT in the health care industry. However, much work remains. While HHS, through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the American Health Information Community, has initiated specific actions for supporting the goals of a national strategy, detailed plans and milestones for completing the various initiatives and performance measures for tracking progress have not been developed. Until these plans, milestones, and performance measures are completed, it remains unclear specifically how the President’s goal will be met and what the interim expectations are for achieving widespread adoption of interoperable electronic health records by 2014.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d061071t.pdf
And…
Domestic and Offshore Outsourcing of Personal Information in Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE
GAO
September 2006
Report to Congressional Committees
Privacy
Federal contractors and state Medicaid agencies widely reported domestic outsourcing of services involving the use of personal health information but little direct offshore outsourcing. Among those that completed GAO’s survey, more than 90 percent of Medicare contractors and state Medicaid agencies and 63 percent of TRICARE contractors reported some domestic outsourcing in 2005.
However, some federal contractors and state Medicaid agencies also knew that their domestic vendors had initiated offshore outsourcing. Thirty-three Medicare Advantage contractors, 2 Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) contractors, and 1 Medicaid agency indicated that their domestic vendors transfer personal health information offshore. Moreover, the reported extent of offshore outsourcing by vendors may be understated because many federal contractors and agencies did not know whether their domestic vendors transferred personal health information to other locations or vendors.
In responding to GAO’s survey, over 40 percent of the federal contractors and state Medicaid agencies reported that they experienced a recent privacy breach involving personal health information. By survey group, 47 percent of Medicare Advantage contractors reported privacy breaches within the past 2 years, as did 44 percent of Medicaid agencies, 42 percent of Medicare FFS contractors, and 38 percent of TRICARE contractors.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06676.pdf
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
As leaders in Congress and in the administration dodge the issue of their failure to address the real problems in health care, they frequently attempt to divert our attention by advocating for their surrogate solution for our health care problems: health information technology.
How serious are they? “Plans, milestones, and performance measures… have not been developed,” and it remains unclear how the goal can be achieved by 2014. And what we do have in place has been outsourced to private contractors, with over 40 percent reporting privacy breaches of personal health information.
Now that’s leadership!