IT:Bill authorizes $4.5B in healthcare IT grants

It is probably a longshot to ever pass, but legislation introduced on Monday by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would authorize $4.5 billion in grants to healthcare providers to adopt interoperable technology. Grants would be capped at $1 million for hospitals and $15,000 per physician in group practices (the commonly assumed per physician cost of an EMR. The bill would also allow hospitals and other healthcare companies to write-off IT investments, a serious incentive.

- see this story from Health Data Management