Healthcare IT is the foundation for transforming healthcare, and right now states are leading the way, according to Jim Douglas, the Republican governor of Vermont, at a Monday HIMSS10 session.

Douglas, co-chair of the State Alliance for e-Health, has championed healthcare reform in Vermont by using health information exchange in a program called Blueprint for Health. The program focuses on preventive care and has helped catapult Vermont to the "number one healthiest state in America" for the past three years.

"It's simple really," Douglas said. "When Americans are healthy, they spend fewer dollars on healthcare."

Access to electronic health records is the foundation, Douglas said. When people have access to their EHRs, they are transformed from patients into consumers. Through the use of healthcare IT, doctors are able to avoid the extra costs of duplicative tests and the potential dangers of drug interaction.

With healthcare reform beginning to crumble "along the old political fault lines" in Washington, the role of states has never been more important, he added. In the "intricate web of political and social issues," Congress has missed one critical fact: "healthcare is on track to bankrupt us if we don't act boldly to reform it."

At the Governors Association semi-annual meeting Feb. 20-22 in Washington, DC, Douglas said there was a broad consensus among governors of both parties that addressing the affordability of healthcare is critical. Governors all agree, he said. "Healthcare reform is something all Americans want and deserve."
 
According to Douglas, the overarching healthcare theme at the governors' meeting was the need for more data to help guide health policies and improve care.

"In this current economic situation, pressure will intensify over time to develop health information exchanges in states," Douglas said. "If we work together, we can transform our healthcare system. You wouldn't be at this HIMSS annual conference if you didn't believe that too."