Senators today are expected to tinker with a bill that would give providers and others more than $160 million over two years, plus more later, to speed up adoption of health information technology.

Among other things, the measure would bring public and private partners together to make IT recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill was scheduled to come before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today.

In 2005, the Senate passed legislation similar to the “Wired for Health Care Quality Act of 2007,” which was introduced Thursday by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and colleagues from both sides of the political aisle. The 2005 bill did not advance out of House-Senate negotiations.