AUGUSTA – A state lawmaker would like to provide low-interest loans and grants to independent health care providers in rural Maine so they can join an electronic medical-records database being used by more than 2,000 hospitals, clinics and doctors in the state.

State Sen. Lisa Marrache, D-Waterville, on Tuesday presented to members of the Health and Human Services Committee a measure that would authorize a $10 million bond to pay for the initiative and establish guidelines for disbursement.

Most of Maine’s larger health care providers, including Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Franklin Memorial Hospital of Farmington, Rumford Hospital and Stephens Memorial Hospital of Norway, are already using what’s known as HealthInfoNet, but smaller practices and independent doctors face federal penalties if they do not plug into the system by 2015, Marrache said.

“It provides low-interest loans, and potentially, grants to providers and even critical-access hospitals, anybody who hasn’t quite got up to grade in terms of their health (information technology) so that we can all be ready for the deadline of 2015,” she said.

HealthInfoNet integrates electronic medical records from all participants, which means the most up-to-date medical information is available for patients, even if they aren’t visiting with their regular doctor.

Dr. Larry Hopperstead, the chief medical officer at Central Maine Medical Center and a HealthInfoNet board member, said the database drives more accurate treatment for patients and saves money.

“It saves money predominantly by preventing complications with medicines and from avoiding unnecessary tests or procedures to confirm something that’s already recently been evaluated,” Hopperstead said. “The transportability of that information helps drive appropriate decisions without unnecessary time-wasting on re-testing.”

Recently, a very sick man came into Rumford Hospital, Hopperstead said. The man was able to tell doctors that he had recently had major abdominal surgery, but couldn’t tell them what exactly it was for or what medications he was on.

“Here’s the physician in a remote hospital who is trying to manage an acute event that has very likely as its underpinning what happened two weeks ago,” Hopperstead said. “The old-fashioned approach to this would be to find someone at the hospital where the surgery took place who can get into the medical-record system and find the most recent information. Then they need to find a fax machine and fax it; this does not happen instantaneously.

“But now we have access to all that information within a few key strokes. What the lab values were, what the discharge summary said, what prescriptions were issued, and that drove the Rumford doctor’s decision process that led to an exceptional outcome.”

Gordon Smith of the Maine Medical Association told lawmakers the HealthInfoNet system would not reach its full potential until all Maine doctors are involved.

“There is no question that the quality and efficiency of health care could be improved if the very fragmented health care system could be pulled together and operate through technology and have access to the same information at the right time,” Smith said.

The system already contains the records of about half of Maine’s 1.3 million people, Smith said.

Hopperstead said patients are given the opportunity to keep their records out of the system, but few do.

Devore Culver, executive director of HealthInfoNet, said the time and cost for doctors working in their own practice to buy computer software and learn how to use it would be mitigated by Marrache’s proposal.

“Our objective is to make sure that does not become the barrier, that people do in fact invest and they do make a meaningful effort to change their care,” he said. “One of the real challenges in moving our structure forward so we do have inter-connectivity is getting particularly the smallest and the most underserved areas of the state connected in to us.”

Earlier this month, HealthInfoNet received $6.5 million from a grant provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to “develop and implement a statewide health information technology plan,” according to a release from the governor’s office.

Marrache’s proposal would need approval from at least two-thirds of the Legislature in order to send it to Gov. John Baldacci’s desk. Maine voters would also have to approve the $10 million bond in a statewide election.

A Baldacci spokesman said the governor hadn’t made a final decision about putting forward a bond package this year. Last year, lawmakers worked with the governor to approve a $150 million borrowing plan, parts of which Mainers approved last fall.

Democrats have indicated they would like to put forward another bond package, but they would need the votes of at least some Republicans to meet the two-thirds threshold.

“I came into this session with no expectation to do any further bonding, and I think that’s the position of most Republicans,” said state Rep. Sawin Millett of Waterford, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee.

rmetzler@sunjournal.com

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