CBO: Maybe Feds Should Fund Health IT

Although health insurers might have an incentive to help providers acquire health IT systems, “the same savings and improvements in quality that such a payer might reap if providers used a health IT system could also benefit competing health insurance plans,” the analysts write.

Some health insurers are trying to encourage use of health record systems administered by their own organizations or by independent organizations, rather than by health care providers, but many carriers and providers are reluctant to participate in open or multi-organization health record systems, the analysts write.

The federal government might have a natural role in helping to pay for the introduction of health IT because the federal government, as a major buyer of medical services, would benefit greatly from increased efficiency, and health IT may be a “public good” – “a good that would be provided in a less-than-optimal amount by private markets if the government did not intervene,” the analysts write.

One challenge to private vendors, the analysts write, is that many users of health IT may be able to become “free riders” and use the systems without actually paying for them.