Part of the American Recovery and Redevelopment Act (ARRA) was incentives for the health care industry to switch to electronic medical records. A recent New York Times article (Feb. 19, 2013) looked at what went into this $19 billion pie. They concluded that the health care shift to electronics medical records led to rent-seeking behavior by the “big three” suppliers of electronic medical records. The three companies were Cerner Corp., Allscripts and Epic Systems of Verona, Wis. The three lobbied heavily to have the $19 billion included in the bill. And, of course, the requirements for suppliers were oriented toward systems produced by these three. No problem? Oh, wait, these companies are old and produce what should be legacy systems. Continue Reading →