HIMSS To Unveil HIT Value Model

Kicking off the Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition here on Tuesday, HIMSS executive vice president Carla Smith announced that HIMSS is poised to delver a value model measuring the return on health information technology investments.

With ten of billions of HITECH dollars paid out to date, and significant IT implications under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act still to come, Smith said many people are now asking: Did we actually buy what we thought we were going to buy? And are Americans going to be getting better, safer, more efficacious care?

The classic ROI is “almost always starting with the financial return, that’s just classic business,” Smith said. But “it gets a little bit more tricky when you get into healthcare” – and health information technologies, specifically.