FY 2006 Budget In Brief

President prioritizes healthcare IT: CMS plans to use health information technology in "developing evidence-based approaches to integrating technology with medical care" and as a "central strategy to improve quality and agency effectiveness," according to FDL-1HHS' FY 2006 budget request. The proposal complements CMS Administrator Mark McClellan's initiative to grant conditional coverage for technologies and leverage health IT to gather data confirming benefit (1"The Gray Sheet" May 24, 2004, p. 21). HHS is requesting $125 mil. for health IT, with $75 mil. allocated to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to "provide strategic direction for a national interoperable healthcare system, and to encourage clinicians to connect and collaborate within a national Health IT network." Congress failed to appropriate any FY 2005 funding for the office, established in April 2004...