HIT Executive Order in the Works

According to a Washington Post report, Health and Human Services Secretary Leavitt informed the National Governors’ Association meeting that President Bush will sign an executive order next month requiring “all providers of federally financed health care [to] adopt quality-measurement tools and uniform standards for their information technology.” The Executive Order is expected to include standards that have been the focus of the American Health Information Community workgroups: “registering patients, reporting lab results, writing prescriptions and providing secure communication channels.” Presumably, federally financed health care will include the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. The Secretary also “promised that by year’s end, a majority of the 100 largest private employers will sign similar contracts with the hospitals and doctors they use to care for their workers.”

What’s more, HHS also has created a spiffy new HIT website!