The House of Representatives on July 27 passed health care information technology (IT) legislation, setting up a possible conference with the Senate, which passed its own version of the bill in 2005.

IT reform - which, in simple terms, means digitizing health care records that are now largely on paper - was supposed to be one of the few issues in the contentious health care debate on which all sides could agree, a no-losers proposition that could reduce health spending in the United States by as much as $81 billion a year. Passage of the bill in the House, though, became a struggle, with disputes over privacy issues and an update of the International Classification of Diseases codes costing the bill many supporters, especially among Democrats.

The bill that passed the House would:

• Direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to study whether the privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and state privacy laws should be merged to form one national standard. (The original bill would have preempted state laws with HIPAA within three years.)
• Require the International Classification of Diseases codes to be updated by 2010. (The original legislation set a 2009 deadline.)
• Make permanent the sub-cabinet position of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to oversee improvements in IT.

Both the House and Senate are in recess until after Labor Day. It is uncertain if the two chambers will appoint conference committees to reconcile the differences between their respective bills this year. If a compromise bill is not sent to President Bush's desk before the adjournment of the 109th Congress - scheduled for Oct. 6, but likely to be later - the legislation will die.

• Better Health Information System Act of 2006 (passed by House)
• Wired for Health Care Quality Act (passed by Senate)