Rep. Thomas Huntley (DFL-Duluth) estimates Minnesota hospitals and physicians would receive $450 million to $800 million in Medicaid incentives if the state adopts a system for overseeing the exchange of electronic health information.
The incentives are available through a provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that rewards providers who become “meaningful users” of electronic health records. That includes being able to electronically communicate patient information from one clinic or hospital to another.
Huntley and Sen. Tony Lourey (DFL-Kerrick) sponsor
HF3279/
SF2974*, which would establish state oversight of the organizations that facilitate the electronic transfer of health information. These organizations would need to register with the Department of Health and comply with requirements that include privacy standards.
“These groups do not retain information; all they do is transfer it from one place to another,” Huntley said. “There’s no central place that has all your information. Your records still reside with your clinic or with your hospital.”
The bill was amended and passed by the House 96-37 May 4 and returned to the Senate, which did not concur, and a conference committee was called to work out the differences.
Some legislators are wary of the bill’s implications on patient privacy.
“The idea that we’re going to send our health information to a third party, whether that third party is a government party or a private party, ought to make us a little bit skeptical,” said Rep. Laura Brod (R-New Prague).
Huntley said nothing in the bill would change Minnesota’s health privacy standards, which he called among the strictest in the nation. Patients already have the option to demand their records not be shared with other providers, he said.
Rep. Matt Dean (R-Dellwood) successfully amended the bill to specify that no data obtained through the electronic transmission of medical records may be used by the government to restrict a patient’s medical treatment options. An amendment successfully offered by Rep. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) would modify rules on the electronic filing of claims.
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