Health Care Reform Waits

By Mike Lillis 05/09/2008 | 5 Comments

In 2004, Tommy Thompson, then-Health and Human Services secretary, approached his boss with a request. Observing that the nation's doctors and hospitals operate a tangled web of incompatible forms and technologies, Thompson asked President George W. Bush to create a universal system of electronic medical records that would follow patients around the country, eliminate redundant treatments and, according to some estimates, trim billions of dollars from the nation's annual health care tab. Thompson wanted the president to establish the system within 18 months.

"He came out for 10 years," Thompson said this week, "and as a result, we haven't been able to get there."