The recent stimulus bill will provide a boon to Electronic Medical Records vendors. As the government begins to refine its definitions on meaningful use and hospitals and physician offices are gearing up to spend the stimulus money, a spot light is being shown on the EHR industry and its financial viability.
“It’s a very volatile industry” says Steven Lazarus, president of the Boundary Information Group. A
Huffington Post investigation writes that while federal officials hope that EHRs will help lower costs and improve health quality, there is concern that the government is not doing enough to ensure that taxpayer money isn’t wasted on faulty systems. More concerning, many physicians have little expertise in buying electronic health records, and do not know what questions to ask or what protections they should push for in their contracts.
Hundreds of companies—big and small, new and old—sell health information technology, but industry analysts expect a wave of consolidation in the market. This wave creates uncertainty in the market place and questions of whether some vendors will survive.
Of course, large vendors of EHRs are urging congress to look into this issue and even suggesting that they deny access to small companies with small balance sheets. “We should consider a review of a company’s financials to include long-term viability,” said Sheldon Razin, Chairman of Quality Systems, to a congressional panel.
While the government should be always vigilant in getting the best value for its informatics technology, this should not be a an excuse to stifle innovation and new entrants into the market place. Innovation needs to be the key to create a robust EHR infrastructure. Innovative EHRs that meet the needs of physicians and hospitals will come from large and small companies.
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