How Health Policy Research Shapes Your Medical Care

For many people not accustomed to DC culture, the words "public policy" or "health policy research" are simply words that have little significance attached. My family frequently asks, "Ashley, what is it that you do again?" regarding my career in public policy. A couple I was talking with on a recent flight to the west coast stared blankly at me after I announced my career choice, then abruptly changed the subject. This general lack of understanding about what public policy means contributes to the anxiety felt by many in the field who are constantly asking themselves, "Is what I do making an impact?"

This year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was passed, marking the Obama administration's first visible accomplishment toward economic recovery. More importantly, it was the Obama administration's first big step toward health reform, one of it's largest priorities.

Though the Act made many important strides for health reform, one of the most widely discussed reforms was funding for health information technology (HIT). Health information technology is an aspect of our system which has long been touted as an easy way to increase the efficiency of our system and deliver higher quality health care at a lower cost. It is believed to be capable of reducing duplicate testing, decreasing the potential for negative drug interactions by allowing prescribers a more complete history of their patient's medications, and facilitating communication between different types of providers. Despite the positive aspects of health information technology, its initial start-up costs prevented many providers in the United States from adopting it. The funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 could represent an immense shift in the architecture of our health care system by providing incentive for providers to begin adopting this technology.

What caused this particular aspect of health reform to have such a prominent position in the Recovery Act? According to the Washington Post article, "The Machinery Behind Health-Care Reform", the force behind this important shift was the work of a lobbyist group, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. The group had been working on the issue for years, and saw the opportunity created by the economic downturn and the election of President Obama to finally make HIT a reality. Much of their work relied on research generated by a nonprofit research group which was chartered by a group of providers. Their research produced an expected annual savings of 77.8 billion, which caught the attention of the Obama administration. Additional studies conducted by reputable groups such as RAND have shown similar savings. The shrewdness of the idea of health information technology combined with powerful numbers, effective lobbying, political ambition and economic crisis aligned to produce powerful health system reform as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law.