Since he was candidate Obama, the new President has been calling for a comprehensive electronic medical records system with the U.S. Health Care juggernaut.

In his Plan for a Healthy America, Presidential candidate Barack
Obama called for lowering costs through investment in electronic health
information systems at the Federal level, acknowledging that
paper-based medical records are cumbersome and error-prone. In several
of his stump speeches, he drummed home the point that processing paper
claims was also twice as expensive. While still a candidate, he pledged
to invest $10 billion a year through 2013 to move the U.S. health care
system, a juggernaut if there ever was one, towards a broad adoption of
standards-based electronic health care systems, including electronic medical records.

In his December 8, 2008, radio address, President-elect Obama
discussed his extensive plans for stimulating the economy. Included in
his plans was a significant investment in EMRs. “In addition to
connecting our libraries and schools to each other through the
internet, we must modernize our health care system. This won’t just
save jobs – it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s
office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology
and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.”

As President Obama’s February 2009 stimulus package neared its
historic passage, the President gave a speech in Washington, D.C.
continuing his clarion call for providing electronic patient records
throughout the United States within the next five years. Explained the
President in the impressive oratory style that has already come to
define him, “To improve the quality of our health care while lowering
its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure
that within five years, all of America’s medical records are
computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the
need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions
of dollars and thousands of jobs – it will save lives by reducing the
deadly, but preventable, medical errors that pervade our health care
system.”

On this issue of EMR software, Barack Obama has remained as steadfast as a straight arrow.

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical
records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. To learn
more about electronic medical records, emr software and medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.