| IBM Provides Private Financing For EHR Adoption
IBM Global Financing has partnered with four electronic
healthcare records (EHRs) providers to improve implementation through
private financing to hospitals and medical providers.
"EHRs hold the potential to make healthcare more
efficient, safer and lower costs, but a lack of capital is holding back
many hospitals and physician practices from making the move to digital
records," IBM said, "and while the terms of reimbursement are still
unclear, a financing gap exists for many hospitals and doctors wanting
to make the move to EHRs. The switch is especially difficult for
smaller medical groups under greater challenges to manage costs."
IBM selected Siemens Healthcare, Lavender and Wyatt
Systems Inc. (LWSI), Healthcare Management Systems and SCC Soft
Computer to contract with.
IBM will now provide financing for Siemens clinical and
revenue cycle management applications, including INVISION, MedSeries
and Soarian.
LWSI is a software solutions company focused on
behavioral health providers, contracting with IBM provides financing
for it’s non-profit customers to implement EHRs.
"Even at the niche level, financing is key. Many of our
clients have seen reduced funding from public and private sources, but
still understand the need to start implementing solutions today. We
feel thathelping our clients connect the dots between federal grants
and loans, charity pricing and IBM Global Financing options stretches
their dollars available for LWSI’s Essential solution," said Brad
Feller, president of LWSI.
Healthcare Management Systems will use the IBM partnership to attain meaningful use criteria for its clients, IBM said.
"Customers of electronic healthcare records solutions
soon realize that while health IT technology is necessary, it’s
also expensive," said Richard Dicks, IBM general manager for North
America.
"Costs have today become a non-technological barrier to
health IT adoption. It’s a chicken and egg scenario facing
medical providers. Many are waiting for government funding working its
way through the system, but need the benefits of the technology today.
Technology financing helps speed up implementation in a more cost
effective manner," Dicks said.
Address: IBM Corporation, 1 New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504; (914) 499-1900, www.ibm.com/financing.
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