Investors Like Health IT

The progress of turning paper medical records into digital copy has been slow. Blame it on a long, confusing and -- perhaps most of all -- costly process for many medical practices. Enter the government's stimulus money. On average, it cost approximately $30,000 per doctor to implement electronic medical records; if they qualify for stimulus funds, doctors will receive $44,000 in grants in the following five years. "Some investors that are looking at a menu of health care options, look at health care IT because it is more attractive," says Todd Warner, a software and Internet infrastructure analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. "No matter what's going on, the health IT stocks aren't based on the ebbs and flows of the health care reform. You know the money is there."