4 Healthcare Trends That Demand Your Attention
By The Business Solutions Network
In our upcoming issue of Business Solutions magazine, we feature a special supplement called the Partner Program Insider. Within this special insert, my colleague Mike Monocello and I highlight trends we're seeing in the top four vertical markets our channel readers are selling into: education, government, healthcare, and retail.
In my article "2012 Trends In Healthcare -- A Business Solutions Exclusive," I share 4 of the top trends happening in this vertical, based on a survey of 200 contacts representing IDNs (Integrated Delivery Networks), hospitals, group practices, and other healthcare providers to gain first-hand insight into their planned health IT projects and focus areas for 2012. The respondents were divided pretty evenly into the following three groups: IT leadership, clinical leaders, and executive leadership.
While each trend is important, I'd like to draw your attention to the first one: EHR (Electronic Health Record) Adoption & Meaningful Use. I spoke with a friend of mine recently who's a doctor in Erie, PA who recently made the switch from traditional records to EHR, and he shed some light on what an impact this has been to his business. Not only did the new solution require a lot of training, in the end his small business practice (which has about 12 employees) ended up spending nearly $300,000 in IT hardware, software, and services.
What drove him to make the switch? He's well aware that in less than two years, if he's not on this program, his business risks lower insurance reimbursements from Medicare, plus there's the threat of possible government fines. If you're able to help alleviate some of the stress small healthcare practices like this one are facing -- and even take the next step and help them take advantage of provisions created by the Obama administration, such as a healthcare IT (HIT) education tax credit or direct lending to offset education costs, you'll have plenty of business opportunities in 2012 and beyond.