iHealthBeat

George Lauer

The U.S. political and regulatory environment was not judged one of the country's weaknesses in the World Economic Forum report. The U.S. ranked 22nd among 167 countries.
 
In the realm of U.S. health care IT, some experts contend government is the answer, some say it's the problem and others say it's both.
 
David Merritt, project director at the Center for Health Transformation, probably falls into the third category.
 
"Whenever you bring in government, particularly the federal government, you bring in all the baggage that comes with it -- inefficiencies, transient leadership and intransigent bureaucracy. There's always the fear of talking any proposal to death," Merritt said.
 
He acknowledges, however, that government-led health IT appears to be the way this country is moving. Especially in the realm of interoperability.
 
"Government has to take the lead because the private sector hasn't," Merritt said.
 
State Examples:
 
Merritt and the Center for Health Transformation -- the Washington, D.C., think tank founded in 2003 by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R) -- are working with state and local governments on health IT improvements.
 
They point to Minnesota as a potential model for other states and perhaps the nation as well.
 
"There has to be an overseeing leadership of some sort to make sure systems are interoperable and states like Minnesota are moving forward with that in a way we think will work," Merritt said.
 
"The Minnesota Legislature passed a law saying every health system -- essentially every health care provider -- will have an interoperable system by 2015. They didn't prescribe how to do it," Merritt said, adding, "They set up the apparatus to collectively make sure that it got done and they set a deadline. That's a key. If you don't have a deadline for things, you could talk about them forever."
 
The Massachusetts Legislature is considering a similar approach.
 
Politics Might Catch Up With Technology
Merritt predicts that politics may soon catch up to health care IT.
 
In addition to state legislatures embracing health IT, Merritt pointed out that the three major presidential candidates -- Republican John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- all feature IT in their health care proposals.
 
"I think this country faces technology challenges but not technological problems," Merritt said. "I have utmost confidence that technology will meet the challenges to come. I think the hurdles in front of us are political, not technological. And I think we're going to be getting over a lot of them a lot easier than we used to," Merritt added.

 Learn more at the Center for Health Transformation