Industry Leaders Call for Competitive Health IT Market; Advise Against Inflexible Technology Mandates

Washington, DC – July 20, 2009

The information technology (IT) industry supports efforts to improve the delivery of health care to all Americans and is calling on lawmakers to avoid technology mandates and ensure “broad, fair, and open competition” among health IT providers.

In a letter sent to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees currently writing health care legislation, the heads of three IT industry associations outline a set of principles “to maximize the contributions health IT can make” to improving Americans’ health care.

“There is near-universal agreement that we can deliver better care less expensively through the use of existing and new technologies,” the leaders write. “The high technology industry is expert at providing an array of innovative products. … Efforts that would limit new ideas and participants ... should be opposed. Thus, we urge you to oppose the inclusion of any explicit or implicit technology mandates in health-related legislation that would prevent … governments or private parties from considering and procuring the best available technologies in health care management.”

The letter is signed by Robert Holleyman, President and CEO of the Business Software Alliance (BSA); Dean Garfield, President and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC); and Jonathan Zuck, President of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT).

Among the principles listed in the letter are:

  • Health IT systems should be interoperable;
  • Information should be portable;
  • Procurement should be inclusive, with “flexibility and choice” for customers;
  • Cost analysis should be comprehensive;
  • Security and privacy protections should be a high priority; and
  • Usability should be a key criterion.

The full letter to the Senate leadership is available here and the letter to the House leadership is available here. Robert Holleyman and BSA VP of Government Relations Katherine McGuire are available for interviews.

Editor’s Note: BSA’s complete US Technology Policy Agenda is online here.

About BSA

The Business Software Alliance (www.bsa.org) is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace. BSA members include Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CA, Cadence, Cisco Systems, Corel, CyberLink, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation, Dell, Embarcadero, HP, IBM, Intel, Intuit, McAfee, Microsoft, Minitab, Quark, Quest Software, Rosetta Stone, SAP, Siemens, Sybase, Symantec, and The MathWorks.

Media Contact

Lars Anderson
media@bsa.org
202-346-8811