Mr. Halvorson Goes To Washington, Recap

Last Friday I wrote about George C. Halvorson's trip to Washington to give testimony to the Senate Finance Committee. Today, I would like to do a small follow up on that post.

Commentary and reporting on Mr. Halvorson's Senate testimony provided by Andrew Noyes on NextGov:

Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson's testimony came as several legislative proposals intended to create a national system of electronic medical records are moving through Congress. Achieving such an overhaul would be daunting, and electronic medical records alone are not sufficient to provide optimal care, Halvorson said.

He called for a special support system that would analyze data from interconnected networks and give physicians prompts to support consistent care delivery and a stand-alone care registry for those Americans who will not have immediate access to integrated health IT. Once a fully computer-supported system is in place, the nation should aim to reduce asthma, congestive heart failure and kidney failure by 50 percent, he said.

Mr. Noyes then proceeds to provide capsule reviews of the responses from the Senate. From the cautious skepticism of Finance Chairman Max Baucus to additional testimony by CBO Director Peter Orszag, he provides a nice summarization of events.

Under Mr. Halvorson's guidance, Kaiser Permanente has become recognized as being at Leading Edge of Health IT, at least according to a piece in U.S. Insurance News a few weeks ago. His focus on the billions in savings, as well as the improvements in treatment it would usher in provide the impetus for his quest to implement IT solutions.

This is far from a new position for Mr. Halvorson. This interview in the San Francisco Chronicle back in 2003 show an almost prescient awareness of the direction we, as a country, have been going as the health care crisis gets worse with each passing month.

What we need is health care reform, and we need it now!

SOURCE: "Panel weighs challenges of adopting health IT overhaul " 07/17/08
SOURCE: " Kaiser Permanente on Leading Edge of Health IT" 06/23/08
SOURCE: "On the record: George Halvorson Kaiser CEO looks at the high cost of health care" 11/16/03
photo courtesy of mdu2boy, used under its Creative Commons license

Native American Health Bill Passes Senate

Improved access to health care. Preventative screening. Mental health services. Thanks to legislation passed in the U.S. Senate last Tuesday, these things may be more accessible to the Native American Community soon.

Mary Clare Jalonick of the Associated Press tells us that the bill, approved 83-10, would have several effects. In addition to funding existing programs at the Indian Health Service, it would also fuel new construction and modernizing of health care facilities located on reservations, increase tribal access to Medicare and Medicaid, and attempt to recruit more native Americans into health care oriented professions. About $35 billion would be spent on these things over the coming decade.

There is no shortage of commentary on the Senate floor (Via a variety of sources listed at the bottom of this post):

• Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., termed this legislation a first step in addressing a crisis in American Indian health care. He is reported as saying that the current system is underfunded and inefficient.


• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said American Indians have access "to some of the least adequate health care in America. [...] Far too many native children are diagnosed with diabetes, suffer from abuse and neglect, or die prematurely because of accidents or illness that could be prevented or cured," Reid said.


• Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK who is also a doctor, called for a much more comprehensive overhaul of the system and called the legislation "morally bankrupt." "Why are we putting off fixing the system?" he asked. "So we could tell everyone that we did something when in fact we did nothing."


• "Improving the delivery of health care services for American Indians is long overdue," said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, D-WA said. "Overall trends in the health of this population are simply unacceptable. American Indians and Alaskan Natives across the country are 400 percent more likely to die from tuberculosis, 291 percent more likely to die from diabetes complications, and 67 percent more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia than other groups. Passage of this bill in the Senate is a critical first step to strengthening health care services for American Indians, and living up to our long-standing trust responsibility to provide for their well-being."


• U.S. Sen Amy Klobuchar [D-MN] stated that this is the first time in 17 years they have been able to pass the Indian Health Care Bill.
  

One of the amendments included in the final version of the bill is an official resolution of apology for the federal governments long history of poor and negative policies regarding native American tribes. Other amendments include the exclusion of abortions at Indian health clinics and a prohibition against spending on programs that discourage gun ownership.

I am sure that there will be a similar variety of available quotes once this hits the U.S. House of Representatives.

SOURCE: "Senate Passes Bill on Indian Health Care " 02/27/08
SOURCE: "Senate approves landmark Indian Health Care legislation " 02/27/08
SOURCE: "Senate Passes Indian Health Care Bill " 02/28/08
photo courtesy of thivierr, used under this Creative Commons license