Creating digital medical records for every American within the next five years – a key provision of President Obama’s stimulus package — could cost more than twice the $19.5 billion figure that has been cited by federal officials.
Federal budget documents show that actual spending for the plan, which will use stimulus money to help doctors and hospitals defray the cost of installing high-tech records systems, could hit nearly $47 billion.
The discrepancy between the Obama administration’s $19.5 billion public estimate and the entry in the budget of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mostly arises from the government’s calculation that it will recoup some of the cost of subsidizing digital systems through billions of dollars in reduced federal health spending. But many health analysts are highly skeptical that such savings can be accurately predicted.