Health Care Stimulus on Hold?

Filed under Health Care, by Peter Elstrom on April 16

Mike Laphen, chief executive of Computer Sciences Corp., stopped in today. CSC keeps a fairly low profile and is much less known than rivals like IBM (IBM) and Accenture (ACN). But Laphen and his crew look pretty well positioned these days. The company has a long history of providing tech services to government agencies, and now that federal and state governments are ramping up to stimulate the economy, CSC looks likely to be involved in many of those efforts.

Laphen did sound a note of caution when it came to the federal government’s plans for health care stimulus, however. He says that the money the government has allocated to prod hospitals and doctors to adopt new technologies probably isn’t enough. The $787 billion economic stimulus plan provides for $44,000 for each doctor to make the transition to electronic medical records and other kinds of health technology.

“It’s a good first step,” says Laphen, “but it’s not big enough, bold enough, or fast enough.”

He says another issue is the lack of a health care czar who can set the standards for information technology, and get the industry moving in one direction. The Obama Administration has not publicly identified a candidate for the job since Tom Daschle withdrew his name from consideration in February amidst tax payment allegations. Laphen praised Daschle, saying that politics aside he had the appropriate qualifications and leadership capabilities to do the job. Laphen says filling that position will be critical to get health care technology investments moving.

“I feel that until they get the leadership in place this isn’t going to get traction,” he says.