HIMSS Signs Letter Supporting ONC’s Mission to Promote the Adoption of Health IT

President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025) proposed budget for the U.S. Health and Hyman Services (HHS) included $86 million for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), an increase of $17 million above the FY2024 enacted level.

As Congress begins to draft their annual spending bills, HIMSS led a multi-stakeholder initiative urging the leaders of the Labor, HHS, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations subcommittees to fully fund ONC at the president’s proposed FY25 budget request. This increase in funding would help advance interoperability and nationwide, standards-based health information exchange to support better health enabled by data.

Read the full letter to congressional appropriations.

HIMSS, along with AHIMA and CHIME, led the joint effort that garnered over 50 signers. The letter explained that this necessary funding boost would provide the agency with the resources they have long needed to better serve as the key partner to both public and private sector stakeholders to advance the health information and technology ecosystem. Without this much-needed increase, the organizations worry that they will be hard-pressed to successfully execute the many agency initiatives, and priorities of Congress and the Administration.

ONC supports a wide array of initiatives aimed at advancing national goals for better, safer, and more equitable healthcare through a nationwide interoperable health IT infrastructure. These include ensuring technology solutions incorporate baseline cybersecurity and privacy requirements, a health equity by design philosophy for federal health IT programs, continued advancements in patient access to health information and meaningful engagement in their care, and working to advance U.S. public health data infrastructure modernization.

To further engage in on this issue, please contact policy@himss.org.