The House Energy and Commerce Committee today reported health IT legislation, H.R. 6357, out of the committee. This clears the way for the legislation to be considered by the full House of Representatives. The bill received broad bipartisan support and there were very few amendments offered. The passage of meaningful health IT legislation has been a priority of the Public Sector HealthCare Roundtable since the Roundtable was established. This is a very important step toward achieving this important objective, and we will continue to push for final passage during the current session of Congress.

In mid-June, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, released a "Discussion Draft" of a health IT bill which was referred to the Health Subcommittee. The subcommittee on June 24 held a hearing on the discussion draft, which they said was the first step in the process of reaching out to all interested parties for comment. The bill was ultimately reported out of the subcommittee unanimously.

The biggest hurdle the committee had to overcome was to reach consensus on privacy issues and to protect people in the event that a "data breach" occurred. Chairman Dingell offered a substitute draft of H.R. 6357 on July 23 which contained language requiring that an individual be notified in the case of unauthorized acquisition, access or disclosure of personal health information.

There were only a handful of amendments which were adopted, including one from Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., which would mandate that consent forms that patients sign be in plain and concise language. A second Markey amendment, designed to protect privacy in off-shore situations, was withdrawn following the chairman's commitment to work out a bipartisan amendment prior to House consideration of the bill.

Other revised provisions in the bill would:

• Prohibit the sale of patients' records without consent unless it is necessary for treatment or to receive payment for treatment;
• Change existing federal privacy laws to allow for the provision of a no-cost digital copy of an individual's medical record;
• Strengthen language to ban direct and indirect payments to providers who advertise health care products to patients without permission; and
• Require the Health and Human Services Department's Office of Civil Rights to launch a formal investigation of complaints and allow the office to impose fines for violations deemed "willful neglect."