Halamka: EHR interface costs likely to plummet

When health IT vendors and providers begin adopting standards now being crafted as part of the government health IT stimulus effort, costs for interoperability will plummet, says John Halamka, MD, chairman of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel. "We know that we won't get precisely plug and play—this is a journey," Halamka told Government Health IT. "But each year, we will get more constrained. We are going from a $20,000 -$30,000 venture hopefully to $5,000-$10,000."