Mr. Close: If you look across the healthcare industry, healthcare technology vendors and service providers are probably the best-positioned out of any sub- segment in the healthcare industry to flourish over the next several years.
TWST: Why is that?
Mr. Close: The reason is obviously the stimulus, part of President Obama's
healthcare reform. The intention is to streamline costs in addition to improving
access or giving access to healthcare to those that are uninsured. Expansion to
those uninsured or underinsured will be possible partly due to the cost savings
expected from adopting healthcare technology, Electronic Health Records that
will streamline the healthcare delivery system.
TWST: How will other field segments fare?
Mr. Close: Clearly, you have several segments of healthcare IT, the hospital
sub-segment, the physician's office, family practice physicians and the payors.
Clearly, payors have adopted technology to a great degree over the years.
Hospitals clearly have been adopting technology over the years. You can see that
in the size of companies like McKesson (MCK), their healthcare IT division,
Cerner (CERN), which has pretty significant revenues. The least active in
adoption of technology has been the physician's office. Hospitals have been
using financial systems and some clinical systems for a number of years, and in
a lot of cases are in the process of adopting clinical solutions like Electronic
Health Record. They may not be completely there, but have made progress toward
adopting those systems. Contrast this with physicians, where we are talking
about a mom-and-pop business scenario. A lot of physicians practice in small
groups where they are individual doctors or may be a group of two or three
doctors practicing together. These groups have not spent a lot of money on
technology to automate their business.
Tickers included in this excerpt: ATHN, CERN, HMSY, MCK
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