On March 21, 2010, the House passed health care reform: www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform. It’s imperfect but a new beginning, passed during the spring equinox. The divisive fight over the bill was like watching a boxing match, full of bruises and cuts to both sides.

The Republicans are vowing to repeal the effort, which they say will result in cuts in federal aid for medical device companies, teaching hospitals, and other health care firms.

But the bill is shifting money into the healthcare sector, and provides new investment in training programs to increase the number of primary care doctors, nurses, and public health professionals, which, of course, which of course, feeds the pipeline of health IT outlay.

Health insurance companies are big winners of the bill – and since they are huge stakeholders in the e-prescribing push, it’s possible that private incentives in this area will accelerate.

Don’t forget that although most of the recovery money, the largest expenditure, $87.3 billion, goes towards improving and preserving healthcare, the next largest area of funding is health IT, at nearly $26 billion. The HHS just announced awards to help states facilitate health information exchange and advance health IT. www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/03/20100315a.html tuned.

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