Leavitt made the statement at an annual session of the National Governor's Association. He said the goal of the measure was to reduce health-care inflation while improving the quality of medical care.
The executive order would affect doctors and hospitals serving the Medicare population of elderly Americans as well as individuals served by other federally financed services.
The health providers would be required to standardize information technology systems along with the government and set up standards for care of specific health problems, and also develop a uniform way of measuring and reporting treatment outcomes.
Leavitt admitted that many doctors were "skeptical we can create a system that measures quality accurately," but he mentioned some specialties already have standards in place and more can be convinced to maintain them.
As far as the IT services go, Leavitt and his team at HHS are drafting recommended standards for four basic functions: registering patients, reporting lab results, writing prescriptions, and providing secure communication channels between patients and doctors and among health-care providers.
