Why should a company implement health care information technology?
To make health information more portable and accessible. For example, the government, through Medicare and Medicaid, provides grants to give reimbursements to physicians to adopt electronic health or medical records that would be maintained for patients within a physician’s office. Those physicians are required to use those records meaningfully. A meaningful use standard is currently being developed at the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. There are many vendors out there right now who are trying to encourage consumers to, either through an insurance provider or on their own, utilize a personal health record. It involves recording information about their health conditions, including downloading information from devices whether it be a glucometer or taking their blood pressure as a way to engage the consumer and make them more responsible for their health. Overarching everything else is the idea of health information exchange. The go
