There are few areas of health care reform that industry analysts and policy experts agree on. Adopting a system for electronic medical records sharing is one of them and it enjoys bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. President Elect Barack Obama even pledged his support for modernizing the nation’s health care information system by making it a part of his economic recovery plan.
“We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year,” Obama said in his December 8 radio address from Chicago.
Jeffrey Englander, a for-profit health care facilities analyst at Standard & Poor’s, expects that any funds Obama earmarks to modernize health information systems will go towards pilot programs that will attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness and success of medical record standardization before moving towards broader implementation. The overall effort, however, will be delayed at least a year because hospitals don’t have the money to invest — or access to credit — and the industry faces ongoing operating challenges, Englander said.
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