HIMSS13: What Will Happen When The Health IT Boom Ends?

With HIMSS13 less than a week away, much of the news surrounding the annual event centers on new products and services health IT developers and vendors are looking to sell to healthcare organizations and providers with the promise of improving patient care and ostensibly reducing costs. However, the drive to invest in new technology is likely to lead to difficult decision-making for those overseeing capital projects.

The influx of billions of stimulus dollars into the marketplace as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) has created a boon for the health IT industry, especially for those tied to the  adoption of certified EHR technology (CEHRT) in the EHR Incentive Programs.

For those who have witnessed previous attempts to reform healthcare, the tremendous investment in health IT also carries with it an equal need for caution. “If we stayed focus on IT, which we can easily do, it’s the best of times. If we look underneath the covers and we start thinking about what the CEOs, hospital operators, and providers are thinking about, it’s a very different picture,” says Steven Heck, President of MedSys Group...