United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2004-08-13 monographic deposited born digital 64 p. GA 1.13:GAO-04-991R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R P0b002ee18038a5e3 f:d04991r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R GAO-04-991R Electronic data interchange Federal law Fraud Health care planning Health care services Health research programs Health resources utilization Information technology Medical information systems Medical records Correspondence A11732 Studies published by the Institute of Medicine and others have indicated that fragmented, disorganized, and inaccessible clinical information adversely affects the quality of health care and compromises patient safety. Health information technology (IT)--technology used to collect, store, retrieve, and transfer clinical, administrative, and financial health information electronically--is seen as a promising solution to this problem. Technologies such as electronic health records (EHR) and bar coding of certain human drug and biological product labels h ave been shown to save money and reduce medical errors. However, only a small number of U.S. health care providers have fully adopted health IT. Significant financial, technical, cultural, and legal barriers to the adoption of health IT exist. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as a regulator, purchaser, health care provider, and sponsor of research, education, and training, has been working to promote the use of IT in public and private health care settings. There is no comprehensive catalogue of HHS' health IT efforts, however, and little is known about the nature and extent of the legal barriers and HHS's efforts to address them. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, asked us to review HHS' activities to promote health IT. We examined the following questions: (1) What are the major HHS initiatives for promoting the adoption of health IT by public and private health care providers? (2) What are the legal barriers to the adoption of health IT by health care providers, and what is HHS doing to surmount them? https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R.pdf GAO-04-991R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-991R Correspondence GAO-04-991R; HHS's Efforts to Promote Health Information Technology and Legal Barriers to Its Adoption; Electronic data interchange Federal law Fraud Health care planning Health care services Health research programs Health resources utilization Information technology Medical information systems Medical records