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Obama's stimulus package to include healthcare IT

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, Congress and industry advisors are working to map out an economic stimulus package that will include some funding for healthcare and healthcare IT, according to a Capitol Hill source.

Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing and government affairs for Greenway Medical Technologies, is part of a group that will meet with Congress and the Obama transition team early next week to advise them on small business and healthcare IT issues. Barnes said he doesn't know the dollar amounts involved, but feels sure healthcare IT will be a cornerstone of an Obama stimulus package.

The Obama transition team and Congress are aiming to draft a passable bill before the president-elect takes office, to speed passage after he is sworn in, Barnes said.

During his campaign, Obama promised $10 billion a year for five years toward healthcare IT. Barnes, who is chairman of the Electronic Health Record Association, said it will take the next few weeks to bring a package together. He said he will advise Congress and the Obama transition team to provide incentives in the stimulus package to help encourage point-of-care providers to adopt healthcare IT.

The American College of Physicians, a national organization of 126,000 internal medicine physicians, wrote a letter Wednesday to Health and Human Services Secretary-designee Tom Daschle to provide physicians with more money and assistance with healthcare information technology.

ACP President Jeffrey P. Harris, MD, called on Daschle to ensure that the government stimulus package under consideration provides targeted increases in Medicare payments for primary care physicians - a 10 percent Medicare payment bonus to all primary care physicians for 18 months - and incentives for primary care physicians in small practices to adopt healthcare information technology.

"We believe that it is essential that the stimulus package provide a 'down payment' on expanding health insurance coverage and delivery system reforms to reverse a growing shortage of primary care physicians," Harris wrote.

"The 18 months when the bonus would be in effect would stabilize funding for primary care practices, especially smaller ones, which are an essential part of the safety net that people rely on for their care, especially in tough economic times," he said.

The (italics) Wall Street Journal (end italics) reported Thursday that the Obama economic team is crafting a stimulus package worth between $675 billion and $775 billion over two years, according to officials familiar with the package. The final amount of the package will increase as it works its way through Congress, the newspaper said.

The stimulus package is also expected to provide $100 billion to states for Medicaid and funding in five main areas: traditional infrastructure, school construction, energy efficiency, broadband access and health-information technology, according to the Wall Street Journal.