Healthcare Stimulus And You

Physician’s Practice

Much like cloud computing, healthcare has emerged as a hot topic for solution providers. Federal incentives for physicians to implement IT solutions have created new opportunities for resellers hoping to take advantage of stimulus funds. And solution providers are clamoring for more information. This became clear to me earlier this year at CompTIA's Breakaway 2010 Conference. While there was great enthusiasm around cloud-spending opportunities, there was a palpable level of excitement over CompTIA's healthcare-specific tool.

The CompTIA 10-Week Guide To Healthcare offers solution providers a simple road map to help them penetrate the health-care market. The guide provides weekly suggested tasks for resellers hoping to take advantage of the IT momentum resulting from the stimulus bill.

Healthcare stimulus regulations focus on two primary goals to facilitate the automation of physicians' offices by 2015. The first is to drive adoption of computerized health records, and the second is to ensure patient data is actively and securely exchanged between healthcare professionals.

Physicians proving meaningful use of electronic medical/health records are offered an incentive of up to $64,000 (overfive years). There are 25 criteria for "meaningful use," including computerized physician order entry (CPOE), electronic information distribution, e-prescriptions, and the incorporation of lab results into EHRs as discrete data.

For solution providers, these incentives create a new set of opportunities in the physician's office. The demands for mobile doctors and e-prescriptions are growing. There are software opportunities, hardware needs and myriad services in support of electronic medical records and electronic practice management.

At first glance, some of these solutions may appear ISV-heavy but don't despair -- IT capabilities such as data security and integration are attached to these application areas and critical to their success.

The stimulus initiative is not without its skeptics, however, specifically among small practice owners. Physician Practice's Moore met with target customers at the annual Medical Group Management Association conference. She noted that the majority of the skepticism was tied to an early assessment that stimulus funds would not offset the costs for outfitting a small medical office with new technology. That's where our second hot topic emerges: cloud computing.

The physician-customer buying preference is driving cloud adoption. Healthcare application packages available as a service offer customers a lower operating expense, price point and barrier to entry. This could potentially allow small practices to align with new federal regulations and the opportunity to collect stimulus and invest in an IT solution that doesn't break the bank.

BACKTALK: Contact IPED General Manager Rauline Ochs via e-mail at rauline.ochs@ec.ubm.com.