Report: Health Care IT Programs To Reach $12 Billion In 2011

By W. David Gardner, TechWeb Technology News

State and local health care and welfare IT programs are expected to grow from $7.6 billion in fiscal year 2006 to surpass $12.2 billion by fiscal year 2011, government research firm Input said Wednesday.

Input cited recently government actions that will contribute to the growth including the Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2006.

The market research firm also pointed to new efforts by the National Coordinator Office for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) and the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) as measures that will drive health care and welfare IT growth.

"Both the amount of action and the type of action we are seeing are indicative of forward momentum for health IT," said James Krouse in a statement. "We are seeing notable health IT projects from numerous states essentially serving as laboratories for the national efforts." Krouse is acting director of Input's public sector market analysis.

Projecting that state and local IT spending for health and welfare will be driven by an increasing need for program efficiencies, the Input report observed that fraud and abuse reduction will lead to consolidation of current IT systems.