STATEMENT OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY ON FORMATION OF HEALTH IT NOW!

WASHINGTON, D.C—Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health,Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response to theformation of Health IT Now!, which will provide healthcare information technology to patientsand health care providers. “Information technology has already revolutionized many industries, and its use in health carehas immense potential to improve the quality of care and achieve major savings in costs.Despite this great promise, however, the industry has been slow to adopt it, partly because offinancial and technical barriers. Sen. Enzi, Sen. Clinton, Sen. Hatch, and I will soon introducelegislation to assist health providers in overcoming these barriers. Public investment in healthIT makes sense and has broad public support, and we’re hopeful our bipartisan legislation willhave broad support in Congress as well. Rep. Johnson and Sen. Breaux deserve credit fortheir dedication to this issue, and I commend the coalition for forming Health IT Now! toensure that patients and health care providers have a strong voice in the development ofhealth IT.”