IT: US to offer docs free Vista electronic health records

Medicare officials said this morning that the government will offer free electronic health records to physicians participating in the Medicare program. Doctors will be provided with free software based on the highly-regarded Vista, the system developed in-house by doctors and engineers at the Veteran's Affairs administration. The news is likely to shake up the health IT sector considerably, where many vendors have made bets on the small to midsize practice market. Medicare officials said physicians will be responsible for covering only the costs of installation, estimated to be about $10,000 for a small practice. Of course, as ever with physician practices, the question is whether "free" will be cheap enough.

- see this story from The New York Times
- see the CMS Office Vista website

Post a comment