U.S Government Offers Free Software to Doctors

[Gorilla]

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Medicare has not estimated what its software giveaway is worth. But Duncan Pringle, chief Vista technologist at Perot Systems, said that each doctor in a practice paid about $20,000 to $25,000 to get started with a commercial system, including costs of software, a license fee charged to each doctor, installation and servicing.

Installing Vista would cost $10,000 to $12,000 for an entire medical practice. That means that a practice of five doctors might pay $100,000 to computerize, but if the doctors used the Medicare system they might pay only $10,000 for the whole office.

The problem is that Vista has a reputation for being extremely difficult to install. Medicare says it modified and simplified it for doctors' offices, but it remains to be seen whether doctors will want it.
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I wonder if this will help drive down the cost of healthcare as well.

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