Sen. John Kerry Passes Legislation to Help Family Doctors Create Electronic Medical Records
Senator John Kerry recently introduced “The Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act of 2009″, a piece of legislation aimed at aiding family doctors switch to electronic medical records. The Act would make family doctors and other small medical practices eligible for Small Business Administration loans that would cover the costly transition from paper to digital health records. As a senior member of the Finance Committee and former Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Kerry is committed to helping President Obama achieve his goal of digitizing all American health records by 2014.
“Electronic medical records and prescriptions are the common sense solution to restricting costs, reducing errors, and reforming a broken system, Kerry said. “Doctors don’t need convincing — they’ve seen the results. This legislation helps small practices acquire the technology that will allow them to be more efficient and to focus on patient care.”
Kerry is not a newcomer to healthcare technology legislation; in 2007 he introduced the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection Act of 2007, which required physicians to employ electronic prescription technology.
