William H. Frist: “on leader time--the managers will be coming to the floor--one final thought. I am pleased to report that we are making…”

“on leader time--the managers will be coming to the floor--one final thought. I am pleased to report that we are making progress on an issue which I mentioned in my previous remarks on information technology. We are working together in a strongly bipartisan way to improve our health care system, to get rid of waste and abuse and ultimately save lives and improve quality by promoting and making it easy to use the protected electronic health record. Yesterday, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee reported out the Wired for Health Care Quality Act that was introduced by myself, and Senators Enzi, Kennedy, and Clinton. The four of us have been working together aggressively with the HELP Committee. Soon, at the urging of Congress, the administration will make the Veterans' Administration's Electronic Health Record System, called VISTA, available to health care providers free of charge. Making that system available will be hugely beneficial, with tens of thousands of physicians who treat seniors being able to harness the power of having this electronic health record. It will improve the quality of care, the efficiency of care that they provide. It will ultimately pull down cost, and it will get rid of waste within the system. There is much more to be done. That is why I look to rapidly move the HELP-reported bill that will hopefully be before us soon, the Wired for Health Care Quality Act.…”