IT Spending To Reach $12.2 Billion For Health-Care Vertical
With more attention placed on electronic health-care systems and a nationwide health network, Reston, Va.-based research firm Input predicts tech spending in the health-care sector to increase 10 percent in the next five years to $12.2 billion.
Health care has longed gobbled the largest chuck of spending for state and local government, due mostly to program support and benefits. That's changing, however, as more institutions recognize IT as the mechanism for reducing cost and improving efficiency in health care. Beyond providing integration services, the channel will also be tapped to maintain systems. Input predicts that health care and welfare institutions will increasingly outsource such functions as eligibility verification, online customer relationship management and claims processing.
The overall market for IT in the health-care vertical is projected to be between $4.4 and $4.6 billion next year. Part of that is thanks to federal support; just this week, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act passed in the House, and the Certification Commission for Health Care Information Technology announced certification of the first set of e-health record products.