The Newest EHR Player: Wal-Mart
When you look at the signs, it should've been obvious. Wal-Mart
started health care clinics in 2006, using
eClinicalWorks software as EHRs for its 30 clinics. Last fall, Wal-Mart
teamed up with personal health record (PHR) provider Dossia to offer some employees PHRs. Now, Wal-Mart, through its Sam's Club division,
will proffer up EHRs, according to
The New York Times.
In typical low-price fashion, the nation's largest employer will sell the EHRs for $25,000 for the first physician in a practice, and approximately $10,000 per each additional doctor, according to the Times. Dell will provide the hardware; eClinicalWorks will provide the software. "Wal-Mart says its package deal of hardware, software, installation, maintenance and training will make the technology more accessible and affordable, undercutting rival health information technology suppliers by as much as half," The New York Times reports.
The cost plays nicely into the financial perks in the economic stimulus package, which incents doctors $40,000 to $65,000 per physician over several years to implement and use EHRs effectively.
Francine, a blogger at http://ushealthcrisis.com/, claims that Wal-Mart doesn't understand why only 17 percent of doctors are using EHRs, and why physicians in small practices are the most skittish about implementing electronic records. "This tells me they don't know ONE SINGLE THING about what is stopping physicians from using EHRs, or one thing about how physicians regard themselves (as professionals)," Francine wrote.
Despite these feelings - and I'm sure Francine's not the only one with them - maybe Wal-Mart entering the EHR game will help quell physicians' fears about the high costs of EHRs. Perhaps the prices of other EHRs will drop in an effort to keep up. With the economic stimulus money on the table, and a low cost EHR option, this could be just the thing to get doctors plugged in. Or it could just fizzle out, with physicians balking at buying their EHR system at the same place they could score a box of clementines, a big screen TV or some flip-flops. At any rate, it should be interesting.