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Should you wait for VistA? What will it mean for you?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is preparing to field-test an electronic medical record. Whether this system will work well in office-based practices remains to be seen.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. Nov. 14, 2005.

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Are you ready to buy an electronic medical record?

A new player has entered the market. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced in September that it was releasing a beta version of VistA-Office Electronic Health Record to as many as 10 small physician offices that agree to test it.

The software will cost doctors -- even the testing physicians -- a minimum of $2,740 for seven users for the first year, and $1,140 annually thereafter. Testing of VistA-Office, which will be available through qualified vendors, is expected to begin before year's end.

What does this mean for you? Here are some thoughts from industry experts:

Question: Why do I have to pay for VistA-Office software?

Answer: There's a difference between the cost of the software application itself and the costs associated with using it -- hardware, installation, training and support. "Even free software isn't free when it comes to paying for support, paying for the hardware environment the software will need to run on and training users," said Will Ross, project manager for Redwood MedNet, an emerging regional health information organization in Mendocino County, Calif. RHIOs, which link physicians, hospitals and others in local areas, are considered key to development of a national health information network. "These are costs that have to be paid one way or another whether you're using staff time to do it or hiring contractors to come in and do it for you," Ross said.