HIT is a cornerstone of the Governor’s comprehensive health care reforms.

• The Governor supports HIT to enhance patient safety and reduce medical errors. In January 2007 the Governor proposed health care reforms that include:
• Requiring e-prescribing by all providers by 2010.
• Supporting standardized Personal Health Records.
• Implementing Electronic Medical Records in counties for mental health systems.
• Supporting HIT adoption through public/private HIT partnerships recommended by a State HIT Financing Advisory Committee.
• Accelerating HIT implementation by leveraging state purchasing power and supporting uniform HIT interoperability standards.
• Expanding broadband capabilities to support tele-medicine, tele-health and e-health programs.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s executive leadership has expanded HIT in California.
The Governor signed three Executive Orders to increase access to broadband technology and expand its role in health care.

• July 2006:At his UCLA summit on health care affordability, Governor Schwarzenegger signed an Executive Order that established an e-health action forum to help create a statewide HIT policy, and set the goal of full data information exchange between consumers, insurers, providers, researchers and government agencies within 10 years.
• In October 2006:Governor Schwarzenegger established a statewide policy on broadband by Executive Order. The Order coordinated all state agencies on broadband, lowered barriers to fiber optic installation, established a consistent pricing policy and enhanced wireless and Voiceover Internet Protocol technologies.
• March 2007:The Governor signed an Executive Order to accelerate the adoption of health information technology, improve the transparency of cost and quality information, and promote performance incentives and accountability. The order also provided for improved patient outcomes through leveraging Medi-Cal payments to doctors and directed the Office of Patient Advocate to report provider quality to the public.

HIT reduces medical errors, improves patient care and keeps medical costs in check.

• A statewide HIT policy promotes accurate, updated information wherever patients are treated. Currently, numerous and conflicting standards govern how health care providers treat personal health information. This makes information sharing very difficult. HIT supports more accurate and timely diagnosis and treatment, reducing health care costs.
• Reducing medical errors will lower health care costs and keep patients safer. Medical errors caused an estimated 23,000 hospital deaths in 2004 alone and contribute to thousands of injuries each year in California. The Institute of Medicine places the national cost of medical errors at $37.6 billion to $50 billion each year.

• Lowering medical errors by just 10 percent will reduce health care costs by an estimated $450 million per year.
• In 2005 the Institute of Medicine estimated the total national costs of medical errors to be between $37.6 billion and $50 billion annually.

The Governor’s health care reforms call for information transparency and provider accountability.

• More reliable, relevant information increases the value and quality of health care. Giving consumers good information about the cost and quality of care helps them choose the best doctors, hospitals and health care plans that best meet their needs.
• As a result, payers and providers will be more accountable.  More consumer information creates incentives for payers to compensate providers based on quality of care; for institutions to improve the care they provide; and for clinicians to use best practices.

• Governor Schwarzenegger’s  comprehensive health care reforms call for:
  • Increasing consumer access to information on quality of care and pricing to help them make smart health care choices.
  • Expanding and strengthening the ability of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to collect, integrate and distribute data.
  • Ensuring private and public sector purchasers have information on provider performance.