Here are the top four Democratic presidential candidates' plans to use technology to improve national healthcare delivery:
1. Joe Biden: Though the former vice president's comprehensive healthcare plan makes no mention of telehealth, EHRs, data sharing or any other health IT components, his "Plan for Rural America" proposes an expansion of USDA grant funding to accelerate the implementation of telehealth services for mental health and specialty care in rural areas.
2. Bernie Sanders: The Vermont senator has committed to ensuring every American has access to high-speed, high-quality broadband internet, which he has noted is "essential for healthcare services." Included in this commitment is Mr. Sanders' pledge to expand the Rural Health Support program, which ensures that essential community facilities, including hospitals and clinics, are "connected equitably and affordably."
3. Elizabeth Warren: In her plan to transition to a "Medicare for All" system, the Massachusetts senator promised to tackle EHR interoperability: "My administration will ramp up the enforcement against information blocking by big hospital systems and health IT companies, and I will appoint leaders to the FTC and DOJ who will conduct a rigorous antitrust investigation of the health records market, especially in the hospital space," she wrote.
Ms. Warren's plan also described the creation of a "centralized repository of de-identified claims data" to improve healthcare price transparency. Additionally, in an earlier statement entitled "My Plan for Rural America," she promised to expand nationwide access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet to improve healthcare access via digital service such as telemedicine.
4. Pete Buttigieg: The South Bend, Ind., mayor's comprehensive healthcare plan encourages the inclusion of price information in EHRs and, like Ms. Warren's, calls for the creation of an All-Payer Claims Database to "improve the quality of research around healthcare costs and quality and make it easier for patients, providers and insurers to reward high-quality, cost-effective care."
In a separate plan specifically addressing mental healthcare, Mr. Buttigieg proposed increasing reimbursement rates for mental healthcare delivered via telehealth services and increasing veterans' access to virtual care, including teletherapy and telepsychiatry, through the Connected Care pilot program. Echoing several of his fellow candidates, Mr. Buttigieg's rural healthcare-specific plan also proposes expanding broadband access, increasing federal investments in telehealth and leveraging new technologies such as ridesharing services to better reach medically underserved communities.
Candidate rankings are based on the most recent national polling average provided by The New York Times.