WASHINGTON – Congress went home last week before agreeing on language that would reconcile House bill 4157, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act, and Senate bill 1418, the Wired for Healthcare Quality Act. The bill still could pass during a lame duck session before the end of the year, say sources close to the issue.

This would be good news to Justin T. Barnes, vice president of marketing and government affairs at Greenway Medical Technology, who would like to see the bill pass.

“The underpinning of such a law is that it could save lives and contain costs by eliminating duplication of medical testing,” Barnes said.  Barnes has testified before Congress on healthcare IT three times and has helped to craft the language for the proposed legislation.

According to Barnes, so far Congress has not been able to reconcile language between House bill 4157, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act, which has no language on interoperability relating to STARK and Senate bill 1418, the Wired for Healthcare Quality Act, which makes no mention of STARK.

Pat Smith, senior vice president for government affairs at the Medical Group Management Association is concerned that the bill might struggle in a lame duck session, expected to begin Nov. 13.

“There is a vast amount of uncertainty dealing with the outcome of the elections and there will be pressures to have a short lame duck session,” Smith said. “Obviously for us, this [bill] is the key issue. We’re going to keep the heat on in terms of letting people know how important this is and [continue] having discussions with a lot of key players on the Hill, each of whom made various proposals to help us.”

According to Deborah C. Peel, MD, founder of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, passing a healthcare IT legislation without inclusion of proper patient privacy protection - like the one on the table now - would bring about devastating consequences.

“It is unconscionable that leadership is not paying attention to the stories of how vulnerable our medical records are,” she said. “Information doesn’t stay where consumers want it to stay.” Peel’s and 44 other organizations ranging from medical associations to consumer advocacy groups hope an IT bill will not make it through a push to pass before the end of the year.

“The more time we have for the American public to realize the potential dangers, the better,” she said.

Should an IT bill fail to pass this year, Barnes affirmed that he and others would keep fighting to get one passed. “We will definitely crank this back up again next year with a better bill and we will have a more educated congress to work with,” Barnes said. If need be, the IT bill will be re-crafted into several smaller bills, ensuring better odds of getting them passed, he said.