Delivered February 04, 2009

To Members of the United States Senate:

On behalf of Business Roundtable, I am writing to express our strong support for the health information technology (HIT) provisions that are included in the Senate economic recovery legislation, the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” The HIT provisions will bring modern technology to health care and will add tens of thousands of high-paying jobs to our economy.

Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees. One of the principles that Business Roundtable relied on in working with the Congress to develop an effective economic stimulus package is that it must transform and modernize our infrastructure, which the HIT provisions will do. This will not only help put Americans back to work but also enhance American competitiveness.

Business Roundtable strongly supports the HIT provisions in the Senate legislation that provide funding and the essential policy framework for a nationwide HIT infrastructure to encourage the adoption of HIT. Health information technology is a cost-effective investment for the government. A recent analysis by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation concluded that a $10 billion investment in HIT could create more than 200,000 jobs. These jobs would be in high-paying industries such as computer hardware manufacturing, software and information technology services, as well as jobs that would be created from spending on producing hardware, software and information technology.

In times of economic crisis, there is no room for waste. Improving the efficiency of our health care system will reduce costs and provide good jobs in a challenging time. We urge you to ensure that the HIT provisions are retained in the final economic recovery package. We look forward to working with you as you finalize this critical legislation.

Sincerely,

John J. Castellani