Stimulus Spending Boosts Healthcare IT Budgets

It's an exciting and challenging time for healthcare companies as they take on new projects spurred by the federal government's $20 billion health IT stimulus program. Though stimulus money doesn't start flowing until 2011, nearly 70% of healthcare companies in the InformationWeek 500 survey expect their technology spending in 2009 to exceed their 2008 spending. The percentage of healthcare companies ramping up spending is more than in any other industry surveyed. Healthcare companies surveyed say they're allocating 30% of their IT budgets to new initiatives, while 70% is earmarked for ongoing IT operations.