Bill introduced to assist multi-campus hospitals receive health IT incentives

Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, joined Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, along with Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, in introducing the EHR Incentives for Multi-Campus Hospitals Act of 2010. The Act would ensure that multi-campus hospitals which adopt and use health IT systems that meet appropriate standards will receive incentive payments, taking into account the higher costs of implementation.

“This legislation is important for hospitals in my district and across the state of Ohio, who haven’t been getting their fair share of Recovery dollars,” Space said.

"The current rule provides only one payment for multi-campus hospitals, treating them as if they were only one hospital.  In reality, though, if a hospital has multiple campuses, they will be spending money for health IT implementation at each location,” Burgess said. “Even after several attempts to get this provision fixed, the rule still ignored the issue, and this bill would finally fix the problem."

Multi-campus hospital systems have incremental acquisition, training and implementation costs when adopting health IT systems, according to the representatives. The legislation clarifies that the health IT incentives in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should address these costs and offers choices for how the campuses receive these incentive payments, reflecting differences between large and small multi-campus hospital systems.

The legislation has support from more than 30 members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce, including Ways and Means Committee Chair Sander Levin, D-Mich., Energy and Commerce Chair Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Emeritus John D. Dingell, D-Mich.