Heidi Alexander: “I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my opening statement at the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions…”

“I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my opening statement at the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Electronic Health Records Mr. ALEXANDER. Reid Blackwelder is a family physician with three clinics in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee. A few years ago, he talked to the New York Times about the electric health records that were supposed to make his life easier, saying, ``We have electronic records at our clinic, but the hospital, which I can see from my window, has a separate system from a different vendor. The two don't communicate. When I admit patients to the hospital, I have to print out my notes and send a copy to the hospital so they can be incorporated into the hospital's electronic records.'' Dr. Blackwelder could pay for his patients' hospital records to be electronically sent from his system to the hospital's system--but it would cost him $26,400 every month--or $316,800 a year. For Dr. Blackwelder, and so many other doctors, record keeping is now more expensive and burdensome. In 1991, the National Academy of Medicine released a report urging the ``prompt development and implementation'' of what were then called computer-based patient records. The report said these systems, ``have a unique potential to improve the care of both individual patients and . . .…”