This healthy growth will be fueled, in part, by incentive payments for electronic health records under the federal economic stimulus. In addition to increases in spending on clinical automation, other factors contributing to I.T. spending growth will be the new ICD-10-CM codes for claims as well as the new 5010 standards for electronic claims formats, according to a summary of the report.
The economic recession led to lower spending in 2008 than HIMSS Analytics originally anticipated, according to the summary. But a HIMSS Analytics spokesman declined to reveal its final estimate of I.T. spending in 2008 or how much it declined vs. 20007.
“Bond markets collapsed and many hospitals with variable bond rates experienced much higher bond servicing expenses in 2008,” the summary states. “Then their endowment funds took a hit with the collapsing stock market. This resulted in what we believe was a $3 billion to $6 billion shortfall for the spending forecast we published in 2008.”
The research arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society prepared the report, “Essentials of the U.S. Hospital Market, 4th Edition,” based on its annual survey of 5,100 hospitals.
The report predicts that hospitals will spend 43% to 48% of their total capital budgets on I.T. this year, down from 2007 levels. But these percentages will increase over the long haul because of the federal stimulus incentives, the report concludes.
The report can be purchased in its entirety or by chapter, with fees varying widely depending on whether the purchaser is a member of HIMSS or a customer of HIMSS Analytics. More information is available at himssanalytics.org.
--Howard Anderson
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