Get Ahead of the
Health Care IT Boom
New legislative mandates and federal funding are fueling profitable
opportunities for staffing firms that can provide uniquely qualified employees
It’s the perfect storm, an unusual collision of industry sectors that’s creating a new sweet spot for staffing firms, if they can deliver what
the feds want—qualified health care information technology professionals—and fast.
The American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 includes $20 billion to
support the Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health
Act. Among the goals of HITECH
is enhancing patient care through
improved record-keeping and reporting systems—more specifically, through
the comprehensive roll out and adaptation
of electronic health records. (See the sidebar
on HITECH on page 22.) The legislation,
therefore, creates an incentive for health care
provider organizations, through the U.S.
Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services,
to move to electronic health record systems.
However, launching and maintaining such
systems means these organizations need employees
who are uniquely qualified in two main sectors of
the staffing industry—health care and information
technology. What’s more, the government had
mandated an upgrade to the 10th version of the
International Classification of Diseases by Oct. 1,
