Will Money and Power in Wisconsin Politics Influence Health Care Policy?

If you want to take a pulse on the political vibe in this country, one need only look at Wisconsin.  The state has become the barometer for judging not just the public’s appetite for political battle, but the competitive landscape as well...The activity in Wisconsin over the last few months becomes crucially pertinent as the state gears up for the 2012 Wisconsin Senate race...What many don’t realize is that this race could have broader implications – not just in national politics, but in specific policy areas, like health care and your personal medical records, for example.  Lots of money, fueled by liberal business interests and an ever-growing progressive movement in Wisconsin, has already been freely flowing...

...Greater Wisconsin Committee member Judy Faulkner, founder and CEO of health information technology company Epic Systems, called for a boycott of WMC in protest...

It turns out that Judy Faulkner is also important outside of Wisconsin.  She was appointed to the federal Government Accountability Office Health IT Policy Committee in April 2009.  This is a committee that was created in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for the purpose of “mak[ing] recommendations on creating a policy framework for the development and adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure, including standards for the exchange of patient medical information.” 

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) / Electronic Health Records (EHR) – long considered by the left to be the holy grail to a single payer system -  are a key financial component of both the ARRA and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  Faulkner’s company, Epic Systems, is the same software that is installed at many of the facilities often cited by President Obama and members of Congress as the “model health care systems,” including Geisinger, Kaiser Permanente and Cleveland Clinic, to name just a few.

Epic Systems and the Faulkners are also donors to many liberal and Democratic candidates, including some who have been cited as potential 2012 Wisconsin Senate candidates, such as Rep. Tammy Baldwin.  Epic Systems came up recently when five members of a congressional delegation, including Tammy Baldwin, sent a letter to the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, asking them to consider using a commercial off the shelf system for their electronic health records solution.  The letter cited Kaiser Permanente, Cedars Sinai and Cleveland Clinic as model examples – all Epic Systems installations...