PhillyDeals: Stimulus has billions for health technology

People who hoped, or worried, that

President Obama

might be the "Health Care President" thought again when the ailing economy altered his agenda.

But it turns out the $787 billion economic-stimulus program that Obama is expected to sign today is a health-care bill after all.

"This is probably the most momentous funding initiative that has hit the health-care industry since the passage of Medicare in 1965. And it will have a bigger, quicker impact," says Charlie Jarvis, head lobbyist and client financier for NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc., a medical-records-system provider owned by California-based Quality Systems Inc. that employs 500 at its Horsham headquarters.

The bill has billions in subsidies, grants and loans to get doctors rushing to put patient information

online. There are threats of smaller Medicare and Medicaid payments as punishment for stragglers. This makes it easier for hospitals, insurers, patients, other doctors, and the federal government to monitor and challenge treatment.

"The goal is to automate as many medical practices as possible within the next five years. The government's stated goal is 90 percent," Jarvis says. "Today it's more like 10 percent to 20 percent, depending on what you consider 'automated.' They're taking care of that problem, too, by setting national automation standards" for security and access.

There's $2 billion in loans and grants, and $17 billion in Medicare reimbursement for health-related information-technology spending, says U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Phila.), who represents Northeast Philadelphia and part of Montgomery County. Plus, $10 billion in tech-spending incentives that also could be used for health-care IT.

If online records were such a great idea, why didn't doctors shred manila files long ago? "The savings would have accrued to the insurance companies or the government," Schwartz says. "We had to change the financial incentives" so it helped the doctors and hospitals who have to pay for the tech, too.

Jarvis credits Schwartz, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, with finding a path for medical IT subsidies with a law she wrote last year that provided similar incentives for doctors who wrote online "e-prescriptions."

What's the bill give away? Incentives and financing for doctors ready to "share data by October 2010" will range from around $50,000 for a small practice to "a couple of million, depending on the practice," Jarvis says.

Doctors who don't cooperate will see their Medicare or Medicaid fees cut, starting in 2014. "Some doctors may choose not to take Medicare or Medicaid anymore," he says. "But I don't think most of them will feel there's much alternative."

Not that it's easy. "For practitioners to take advantage of this, they have to take a hard look at their operations and make the necessary work-flow adjustments," Jarvis says. "Like banks and airlines did years ago. It's probably a 12-to-18-month program."

One likely result is the consolidation of a lot of small practices into larger or hospital-run groups. "Hospitals have been much more supportive than many of the doctors," Jarvis says. "They feared the government is going to standardize the way they practice."

The

Philadelphia City Planning Commission

meets today, upstairs at 1616 Arch St., to review, among other things, a proposed hotel at 1222 Locust St. by

Lincoln on Locust L.P

. Also on the agenda: redevelopment around the Philadelphia Housing Authority's Mantua Hall, 35th and Wallace Streets; 50 new rowhouses at Lawrence Court; and new zoning guidance for satellite TV dishes.

There will be a separate meeting to present preliminary findings of the Market Street East Strategic Plan next Tuesday at 7 p.m., in an auditorium at Thomas Jefferson University, 1001 Locust St.

According to Center City planner Laura Spina, "The Planning Commission is looking for innovative ways to redevelop and revitalize the area of Market East," Sixth to Broad Streets, Walnut to Race Streets.

The city paid Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn, of New York, for the plan, which Spina says "will include recommendations for the area, whether a casino comes to the Gallery or not."

Correcting an error in Sunday's column: Developer

Bart Blatstein

says his

Tower Investments

has received debt financing from labor-backed

Amalgamated Bank's LongView Ultra 1 Construction Loan Investment Fund.

The bank has not been an equity investor in Tower projects.