[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6279]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RULEMAKING GIVES US AN IDEA OF WHAT TO 
                   EXPECT WITH NEW HEALTH REFORM LAW

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, 14 months ago this House passed in the 
stimulus bill a measure that contained $20 billion for information 
technology relating to health care. The Centers for Medicare and 
Medicaid Services published a rule on January 13 of this year to 
determine qualifications of what determined a so-called meaningful user 
and who will be able to receive this funding.
  Mr. Speaker, this morning I spoke to the American Hospital 
Association. Our Nation's hospitals are almost unanimous in their 
dissatisfaction with the rules coming out of the Centers for Medicare 
and Medicaid Services. These rules are misguided, rigid, and in fact 
unattainable.
  In fact, a bipartisan group of 248 members of this House of 
Representatives agreed. Further, instead of incentivizing compliance, 
these rules punish noncompliance. This undoubtedly gives us an idea of 
what we can expect with the rulemaking and regulation that will occur 
at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Health and Human 
Services, Office of Personnel Management, and, for crying out loud, the 
Internal Revenue Service as they go through this same process 
addressing the new health care reform law. This will go on for years, 
and in fact decades, perhaps even generations.
  Doctors, hospitals, information technology manufacturers, medical 
device manufacturers, and all Americans need to stay alert and pay 
attention to what's coming out of the agencies here in Washington, D.C.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge all of us to stay involved and active. The 
stimulus and the reform bill will affect how health care is delivered 
for generations to come.

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