Two new reports provide further insight into Health IT's potential as both economic stimulus and a building block for broader health reform.

In a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the CBO estimates that the Health IT provisions of House's economic stimulus package would reduce healthcare spending by 0.3 percent from 2011 to 2019. CBO predicts the savings would come from: "diminishing the number of inappropriate tests and procedures, reducing paperwork and administrative overhead, and decreasing the number of adverse events resulting from medical errors."

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund published in the Archives of Internal Medicine provides even more specific evidence of potential savings by comparing the use of health IT in a diverse group of urban hospitals in Texas. The report's authors conclude that:  "Hospitals with automated notes and records, test results, order entry, and clinical decision support experience fewer complications, lower mortality rates, and lower costs." For a breakdown of the savings, check out this helpful Commonwealth Fund chart below:

There are real savings to be had from investing in health IT—provided it's done the right way. New America's health policy program director Len Nichols recently laid out seven key steps to realizing the potential of health IT. Check them out, because as Len writes: "We cannot restore the health of our economy without fixing our health care system, and we cannot fix our health system without bold initiatives to encourage HIT."