The House of Representatives passed the Small Business Financing and Investment Act by a vote of 389-32, legislation that would help small businesses access capital and includes important provisions to help small health-care providers purchase health information technology (HIT). The legislation creates a new lending program to provide reduced cost loans for health-care providers to purchase HIT that would be guaranteed up to 90 percent and would have a subsidized deferment of up to three years. Specifically, the section on financing for HIT would:

• Establish a loan guarantee program for eligible professionals, which provides a 90 percent guarantee and loan amounts of up to $350,000 for any single individual/professional and $2,000,000 for any group.
• Defer payments on the loan for at least one year and up to three years; interest costs on the deferral would be subsidized by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
• Authorize $10 billion in loan authority for the program.

The SBA loan guarantee program may not take effect until the HHS Secretary has established “meaningful electronic health record use requirements” as set forth in the Social Security Act, which ensures that providers will be compliant with the new rules.

The AGA is pleased that the House took action on assisting health-care providers’ purchase of HIT since the cost can still be prohibitively expensive for small practices. The AGA will continue to monitor the legislation and future Senate action.