"We need to know how quickly we'll be able to reap its benefits," he said. "One of the key drivers of health cost growth is new technology. ... The problem is that we don't know enough about whether the newest and most-expensive interventions actually work better. And we know even less about whether they improve patient care or outcomes."

RAND Principal Researcher Richard Hillestad and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Chairman and CEO George Halvorson also participated in Thursday's hearing. Halvorson detailed how a comprehensive IT system has helped Kaiser provide better, more effective care and encouraged the senators to implement a similar system nationally.

Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said in his opening statement, "While it is clear that electronic patient records will improve efficiency of healthcare delivery, the economics have not proven attractive to doctors. They say that systems are expensive to install, and their practices suffer while they get used to having the electronic systems. Savings that result from increased efficiencies accrue to insurers and other payers, not doctors. So we need to think about how to make adoption of electronic records more attractive to those who will use them."

What do you think about Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag's testimony? Is it true that more healthcare IT by itself is not sufficient to produce significant cost savings? E-mail Associate Editor Molly Merrill at molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com.