US hospitals reluctant to outsource IT

While India-based IT firms have had success outsourcing for US drug makers and insurers, they still need to convince US hospitals to sign up for electronic health records systems, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, writes Becker's Hospital Review.

Only 20% of US hospitals have EHR systems, but starting next year the typical 500-bed hospital will be eligible for $6 million in federal funds to implement an EHR and will eventually face $3.2 million a year in penalties if it fails to have a system in place.

Indian IT companies want a share of a US health IT market estimated to be at nearly $50 billion in the next two years, but US hospitals are wary about security of information and dealing with firms half a world away.

Microsoft plans to licence its HealthVault personal health portal to Chinese IT outsourcing company iSoftStone IT, making the PHR platform available in China, says eWeek.

Wuxi, a province of Jiangsu, China, will be the first area of the country to gain access to HealthVault, with additional areas of Jiangsu to follow, according to Mark Johnston, director of international market development for Microsoft's Health Solutions Group.

"China's vision, through its health reform agenda, is to enable citizens to become more actively involved in the management of their health and wellness and that of their families," Johnston wrote in an e-mail to eWeek.

Chubb has established a healthcare IT programme aimed at addressing the industry's liability needs in the light of healthcare reform in the US, states Insurance Daily.

Presently, over 1 000 companies supply IT products and services to the healthcare and medical research industries in the US and Canada, and the company says this sector is poised for additional growth.

The group says it has, therefore, brought together its information and network technology and life sciences expertise to create a liability product that can help protect healthcare IT companies from general and products liability and errors and omission liability to third-party liability to patients.