THIS MAY BE WILDLY OPTIMISTIC

But according to one projection, computerizing health care may save tens of billions a year.

Stimulus technology money aims to reduce health care costs
By Max Frumes | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, August 8, 2010

DANVILLE, Pa. — In the middle of rural Pennsylvania's rolling pastures and farmland sits the sprawling 2 million-square-foot headquarters of what's supposed to be the future of health care.

The Geisinger Health System employs 13,000 people and provides health care to 2.6 million in 42 counties across central and northeastern Pennsylvania. Helicopters fly in and out every day, carrying patients from around the state. Just one of its buildings spans more than five football fields.

The government has chosen this health care metropolis as one of 15 model health care information-technology systems around the country, giving it $16 million in taxpayers' stimulus money to expand its efforts in the hope of dragging much of the country's paper-based health records system and organization into the 21st century.

By modernizing care and generating savings, America's health care costs could drop by as much as $77.8 billion a year, according to a recent report from the Center for Information Technology Leadership, an academic research organization.