Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) last week introduced a bill in the Senate that would establish a national health information technology network to improve access to medical information.
It would authorize $125 million in grants each year over five years to create local or regional health information organizations to develop healthcare IT standards. These standards would be mandatory for federal government programs and voluntary for the private sector.
It also would allow healthcare providers and insurers to provide healthcare IT equipment to physicians within the scope of certain goals, such as reducing medical errors, lowering costs or improving quality.
