Health IT market is expected to be worth $8.5 Billion by 2022, according to a new report released by Deltek. The study claimed that the market was actually being sustained by the EHR initiative of US Department of Veteran Affairs.
The report also found that the VA and DOD spending will continue to rise to its peak by 2021, but the existing EHR systems will suffer a set back as new EHR systems come online in the market, which will result in a slight drop in Federal Health IT spending to $8.1 billion.
As of 2017, the Department of health had the highest share, about 40% of the $6.1 billion government reserved for spending on Health IT. The spending by VA and DoD were 27% and 24%, respectively. However, the IT modernization by Veteran Affairs is expected to increase, whereas the IT spending by the health insurance marketplaces is expected to drop. HHS spending is also reported to be decreasing as they are trying to go back to pre-Affordable Care Act spending.
In June 2017, Former VA Secretary David Shulkin announced that the VA would replace its legacy VistA EHR with Cerner, and the motive behind this was the desire to interoperate with private health sector and DoD. The contract was put on hold over interoperability concerns. Still, the Government Accountability Office expects the project to initiate in June 2019.
In the next 5 years, the expenditure by the Federal Health IT sector will increase in medical enrollment. However, with almost 40% spending, VA will still lead other government departments. By that time the DoD will also complete its MHS Genesis project, according to the report.
The report suggests that contractors looking to be a part of the Federal Health IT efforts are actually looking for ancillary opportunities to support EHR implementation efforts of the DoD and the VA. These opportunities include the development of intelligent applications that influence EHR data, infrastructure updates, and functional tools along with interoperability solutions that cater to external EHR systems.
