Implementing meaningful, effective health information technology throughout the nation’s health care system is not a technical problem. Rather, the lack of current health IT infrastructure results from the absence of a business case for such improvements, according to Todd Park and Peter Basch in a report to the Center for American Progress, which was released this week. But health IT can pave the way for effective health care reform legislation by improving chronic disease management, knowledge-based medication supervision, and coordination of care.

Without widespread adoption of health IT systems, it will be impossible to implement value-based payment regimes for U.S. health care. Unfortunately, only 13 percent of physicians currently use even a basic electronic health record and only 8-12 percent of hospitals have a basic electronic records system. The $19 billion in funding that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s HITECH will provide can help spur adoption and meaningful use of health IT.

You can read the full report, “A Historic Opportunity: Wedding Health Information Technology to Care Delivery Innovation and Provider Payment Reform” online at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/health_it.html.