Last week, we celebrated National Health IT week, a time for discussion and collaboration across verticals regarding innovation and application of new technologies in the healthcare space. Various events were held across the country including, The New York Health IT Summit, by Healthcare Informatics. Heather Landi shared a recap of the event in her piece, How Will the Presidential Election Impact Health IT? A Recent Survey Indicates Where Health IT Leaders Stand. At the event, a variety of topics were addressed including data security threats, telehealth, and health data exchanges. Landi also attended Ambra Health’s event, thinkRADical, in New York city where value-based care was a key topic of discussion.
Landi points out that while having a week dedicated to health IT is nice, these discussions are really taking place everyday, particularly with the election looming. Prior to the first presidential debate, a survey was released that gauges health IT professionals’ opinions about how the election could affect the industry. IT infrastructure and cloud services provider Peak 10 polled 157 health IT professionals and asked about a Republican versus a Democratic Party win.
Respondents viewed a Trump win as having both pros and cons. Pros included fewer burdensome regulations while cons included less funding for certain healthcare initiatives and the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act. When it came to a Clinton win, respondents worried that the amount of paperwork and processes could rise along with legislative controls, audits, and added demand for healthcare services, but not additional funding. Overall, 41% of respondents believed the Republican party would have a positive impact on health IT while only 18% cited the Democratic party. However, 38% of respondents also believed the Republican party could have a negative impact on health IT while 33% cited the Democratic party as having a negative impact.
Just about the same percentage of respondents believed the Republican party would have the more positive impact or the more negative impact. So, what does that mean? Landi found that it came down to the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act and whether that was a negative or positive to an individual.
Healthcare Informatics’ contributing Editor David Raths wrote in the September/October issue, that health IT policy advocates are facing a lot of uncertainty with this election year and, “the potential policy differences between a Trump presidency and a Clinton administration are so vast that it’s difficult to bring them into focus.”
Do think the election will have a great impact on health IT?
Catherine Slotnick is a passionate healthcare marketer with a deep interest in the latest & greatest in the Health IT space. As Ambra Health's marketing manager, Catherine primarily focuses on creating and sharing thought leadership content in the radiology and informatics space. Catherine graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in Psychology & Art History. When she's not writing, she enjoys cooking and petting dogs that aren't hers.
