part II/III "...
<<Testing stage>> VistA-Office is one of the pieces in a large puzzle that the federal government is assembling to realize the Bush administration's 10-year goal of implementing a national health information network and electronic records for most Americans. EMRs would be used by, or hooked into, localized regional health information networks -- more than 100 of which are online or in planning stages -- that can be linked to form a national network. For its EMR test, CMS is looking for "small offices with one to five physicians that are committed to engaging in a meaningful beta test, which includes having the electronic health record installed, participating with the vendor in the configuration of that [system in] their particular office, staying current with [product] updates and providing us with feedback," Wark said. VistA-Office does not include a billing system, but doctors can pay vendors to develop interfaces to their practice-management software systems, CMS said. The administration hopes that the eventual full-scale release of VistA-Office will encourage doctors in small practices to adopt electronic records by offering them a lower-cost alternative to other EMRs. Though costs vary widely depending on the vendor and the services offered, even a small practice can easily spend $50,000 per physician on hardware and software. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions, and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
