For Immediate Release
6/05/07

CONTACT:

Liz Ferry
215-368-1500

Sen. Rob Wonderling: Pennsylvania Senate unanimously passes digital health care legislation

Senator Wonderling Bill Helps Doctors, Hospitals Digitize Medical Records

HARRISBURG: On Tuesday, June 5th, the Pennsylvania Senate unanimously approved legislation (Senate Bill 8) to help hospitals, doctor's offices, and health care clinics get the funding they need to create computerized systems to better diagnose and treat the patients they care for.

The measure, introduced by Pennsylvania Senate Communications and Technology Committee Chairman Rob Wonderling (R-24th) enables grant recipients to receive up to $1 million in matching funds to purchase health information technology, help pay the costs and expenses associated with implementation, and train personnel in the use of the new system. Currently, 90 percent of healthcare data information is exchanged via telephone, fax, or mail.

"While many larger urban hospitals are already fully automated, many rural, smaller health care providers are unable to pay the cost of digitizing. Not only do we need to help health care providers obtain the technology they need to better treat patients, we need to make sure that those organizations who already have electronic systems can talk to each other," said Senator Wonderling. "Why is digital health care important? E-records, when balanced with the proper protection of an individual's personal sensitive data, improve health care quality, reduce medical errors, lower the cost of medical care, and advance the delivery of patient-centered health care," he added.

Senate Bill 8 can help consumers in simpler ways too. Patients would be able to get their lab results sent to their home computer, prescription drugs could be renewed with a click of a button, individuals could receive medical advice from their doctor over the internet, and parents could print out their child's immunization records at home.

The bill now goes before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for consideration. Specific funding for the program will be addressed through a separate budget-related measure. Senator Wonderling is advocating a $50 million set-aside within the Governor's Jonas Salk Legacy Fund proposal. As proposed, Jonas Salk would securitize approximately 9.5% of revenues Pennsylvania anticipates receiving from the Tobacco Settlement in order to obtain $500 million for capital projects at universities, colleges and hospitals for healthcare-related research.

"Pennsylvania has been a national leader in the ways in which we have used funding from the Tobacco Settlement. We have made significant and smart investments in smoking prevention and cessation as well as an already enormous funding for healthcare-related research; extending a direct benefit to healthcare consumers through the proliferation of electronic health records will only improve upon the foresight we originally had in distributing the tobacco settlement monies," said Wonderling.