Recently with the acquisition of Perot System by Dell, I like to examine the impact of Obama’s legislation on those who provides software service. Even though EHR software is important, someone still needs to implement and test the software on site. This will provide a tremendous opportunity for IT giants that is looking to generate additional revenue in a slow economic environment.
Personally I believe the large IT software companies will benefit from the bill (including those that are offshore). Even though the stimulus provides money for the implementation of the EHR, most hospital is in a cost cutting mode. This means that hospital will explore the different cost structure including the usage of offshore companies. The EHR vendors simply do not have enough resource to implement and support all their software. McKinsey estimates the growth in EHR software will require an overall spending of $175 billion in the upcoming decade. This will most likely be an under estimate. The best example is Kaiser. The actual cost of their EHR implementation came out to be more than twice what they first estimated. In addition to EHR vendors, IT giants have always been known for their software expertise and they will have much to gain as a result of HITECH stimulus act.