"Of the almost $2 trillion spent on health care in this country, less than five per cent is spent on information technology," Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in a keynote address delivered this morning at the Third Annual World Health Care Congress in Washington. "Fewer than 10 percent of hospitals have electronic records. In fact, 90 percent of health care transactions are conducted by paper, fax and phone calls -- putting the medical system radically out of synch with the way business is conducted in every other sector of the economy.
"If L. L. Bean can remember what color sweater you ordered for Christmas last year, why should you have to fill out a new medical history every time you go to the hospital?"
Seidenberg urged Congress to act on legislation that would create "a 21st century health care system" by setting standards for electronic systems to transmit patient information and other data and, ultimately, require health care providers to use these systems. The Senate, with "widespread, bi-partisan support," has passed one bill, he said, and "now the House of Representatives needs to do the same."
He noted that experts believe that the widespread use of this technology has the potential to save $80 billion a year in health care costs.
He said Verizon supports a "customer-centric" approach to improving the U.S. health care system, based on three key principles: Use information technology to enhance the health care infrastructure. Empower consumers to make better decisions by putting more information about health care options in their hands. And move to a system of "individual insurance plans that is portable from job to job, available nationwide, and is affordable."
"Ultimately, consumers will demand control of their health-care information. That impulse will have a disruptive, transformational impact on the American health care system. And if there's one thing we've learned about managing the disruptive forces in our own industry, it's that winners are the ones who get themselves on the right side of the big ideas that are driving change in the marketplace."
Seidenberg served as a member of the Federal Commission on Systemic Interoperability, a group of medical, insurance, governmental, technological and corporate leaders tasked by Congress to develop recommendations and a timeline for the adoption of privacy-protected systems of electronic health information.
To read entire press release from Verizon
