Cost Of Obama E-health Plan Could Reach $100b

摘要

Anational electronic health records system re-mains a first-term priority for President Barack Obama, but its price tag may far exceed current estimates, according to some health care experts. "The magnitude of what we're going to need to do on the Obama scale is just incredible to think about, when you consider linking all these medical records across all these different towns, cities, states," said Charles Frazier, vice president of clinical innovation at Riverside Health System, a health care provider in Newport News, Va. "We have enough of a problem with that in our own health system." During his campaign, Obama pledged to invest $10 billion per year over the next five years on an electronic health records program that would be designed to streamline workflow at hospitals, clinics and physician offices. Backers assert that EHR systems will improve care while significantly cutting overall health care costs.