New Legislation for Federal Employee EHRs

Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) said recently that he plans to introduce legislation to mandate the creation of an electronic health record (EHR) for every person covered by the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program.

Porter, who heads the House Government Reform Committee's Federal Workforce and Agency Organization Subcommittee, said the program would become "the largest [health information technology] demonstration project in the country." The program covers about 4 million current and retired federal employees.

Under his bill, each person covered would get a wallet-size EHR identification card within five years of the law's enactment.

Speaking at a committee hearing on health IT, Porter said the bill would phase in the EHR requirement, beginning with records of claims paid by the participating insurance companies. "The other components, a personal health record and a provider-based record, will be phased in accordingly," he said.

Read the full story at Government Health IT