Former U.S. senators find common ground on health IT

WASHINGTON – Two former U.S. senators, one a Republican, the other a Democrat, do not have to cross the aisle to work together. Tom Daschle, the Democrat who represented South Dakota from 1987 to 2005, and Bob Bennett, the Republican who represented Utah from 1993 to 2011, pretty much see eye to eye these days – at least on the subject of health information technology.

Healthcare information technology is a topic that is front and center at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was founded by Daschle along with other former senators – George Mitchell, Bob Dole and Howard Baker. Bennett joined the center as a senior fellow this past February.

[See also: Daschle withdraws from nomination for HHS Secretary.]

On April 26, Daschle and Bennett joined the nation’s new healthcare IT chief Farzad Mostashari, MD, on a panel that explored the challenges of converting the nation’s healthcare system from one that is mired in paper to one that is digital and interoperable.

Daschle described the U.S. healthcare system today as one that is not a system at all. “We have a marketplace and a collage of systems,” he said. “What we have is a 21st century operating room and a 19th century administrative room,” he told an audience gathered at the nation’s capital to hear the three men speak.

Daschle said there are too many “stovepipes” in healthcare. It’s hard to find the right data at the right time, he said, and healthcare is the least transparent of all the sectors of the economy. “If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it,’ he said.

On the fix-it end of it, Daschle sounded hopeful.

“We are at the most transformational time in our nation’s history as it comes to health,” he said.

 

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