Private Financing Agreements Break Barriers to Health IT Adoption

By HospiMedica International staff writers
Posted on 30 Dec 2009

IBM Global Financing (IGF; Armonk, NY, USA) has entered into new financing agreements with four leading electronic healthcare records (EHR) providers. The EHR providers are Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany), Lavender & Wyatt Systems, Inc. (LWSI; Little Rock, AR, USA), Healthcare Management Systems (HMS; Nashville, TN, USA), and SCC Soft Computer (SCC; Clearwater, FL, USA).

The EHR providers are leveraging IGF for competitive-rate financing for their clients-clinical and other laboratories, medical practices, and hospitals. The present United States Administration through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is offering billions of dollars in federal spending and incentives to encourage EHR adoption. A timeline for reimbursements is lacking as well as a way to precisely demonstrate effective and meaningful use.

The result is a financing gap: the time between when a hospital, lab, or medical practice must spend millions of dollars to introduce the system into their process and the time it takes for federal funds to materialize and for practice and hospital administrators to be repaid.

According to information technology (IT) analyst firm Ovum (New York, NY, USA), the addition of the four EHR providers has strengthened IBM Global Financing's position as financier to health IT vendors in the marketplace today.

Ovum expects more health IT companies to add financing to their go-to-market strategies because it helps customers manage costs and accelerate deployment in advance of the deadlines set by the United States government.

IBM Global Financing (IGF), the financing business segment of IBM, serves commercial clients ranging from small businesses to the majority of the Fortune 100. With assets of US$34 billion worldwide, IGF provides project financing, commercial financing, and asset-recovery services to clients around the world.

Related Links:
IBM Global Financing
Siemens Healthcare
Lavender & Wyatt Systems, Inc
Healthcare Management Systems
SCC Soft Computer
Ovum