Well, looks like one of our 2009 predictions may already be toast.
We predicted that despite all the hype, federal funding for healthcare IT would not be forthcoming in 2009. Our reasoning was simple, there are so many sectors seeking some sort of financial rescue, HIT would not make the cut in 2009 but would see funding in 2010.
On Saturday, Obama’s most recent address to the public provided an even clearer picture on the future stimulus package that many see will be the first order of business once he takes office. We also received a few messages after we put up the predictions post from Washington DC insiders. They old us to expect $25B to be earmarked in the stimulus package for HIT.
What form that $25b will take (incentives, grants, tax breaks, infrastructure, etc.) remains to be seen.
….hmmm…”$25 B” was the exact amount recommended by HIIMSS.
$25B doesn’t buy much EMR… I suppose that will support some more HIE/RHIO/Latest Acronym around the country, but I don’t think that is enough to compel the hospitals/Priv Rights Folks to actually allow data sharing.
Hopeful sign though.
Huge win for vendors that don’t even share data with themselves yet. (if they all upgrade to the next version you have limited exchannge) Stanford, Kaiser and Palo Alto Medical all have the same vendor (Epic Systems of Madison privately held) and you have to print out the patients records and mail them to Stanford. (cancer patients)
25 billiion is 25,000 million so yes you can buy quite a bit of software. Using a recent quote of $50,000 per doctor you could provide software to 500,000 physicians.
Of course there are no requriments that the savings from this huge investment will accrue to either patients or the doctors. Most of the savings will go to the insurance companies. Medicare already only has a 3% overhead so the EMR vendors and insurance companies just got the biggest windfall of their life.
LOL.. oops sorry that was Vendors. Hard to post via an iPhone.
Well Vince, that little piece of trivia slipped by me. HIMSS must be smiling @ least until we see the details.
Alex,
According to my calculations, $25B buys a hell of a lot of EMR seats. If we assume an EMR license goes for the ave price of $30K, that $25B buys us over 800K licenses. Seeing as we have ~650K practicing physicians, we’ll have more than enough to go around.
And Vendors Win,
You’re spot on, payers and vendors make out like bandits without some realignment of incentives for physicians. Then there is the whole issue of whether or not HIT will make a damn bit of difference to escalating healthcare costs. Nominal impact at best.
But it sure is sexy to say things like healthcare IT, cloud computing and SOA!