UCSF professor estimates cost of nationwide EHR implementation at $150 billion

A California professor says that full implementation of networked EHRs in physician offices and hospitals nationwide could cost approximately $150 billion over eight years, Government Health IT reported July 31.

 

Robert Miller, a professor of health economics at the University of California, San Francisco, said that the seemingly large sum is manageable because it represents less than a 1% annual increase in the nation’s total healthcare spending, according to the article. Miller spoke at an Institute of Medicine workshop on building an information infrastructure that will enable researchers to compare the effectiveness of various medical treatments.

 

Earlier estimates of the cost of implementing EHRs have been somewhat lower, the online publication reported. The Rand Corp. said in 2005 that the total cost over 15 years would be $114 billion. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine the same year predicted that a nationwide health information network would cost $156 billion over five years for capital expenditures alone.

 

Click here to read the Government Health IT article.