Correspondence: Sameer Kumar, Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas, Mail # TMH 343, 1000 LaSalle Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403-2005, USA. E-mail: skumar@stthomas.edu

¹is a professor of Decision Sciences and Qwest Chair in Global Communications and Technology Management in the Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas. His major research interests include optimisation concepts applied to design and operational management of production and service systems where issues relating to various aspects of global supply chain management, international operations, technology management, product and process innovation and capital investment justification decisions are also considered.

²is the Finance Director for the Dakota County Community Development Agency located in Eagan, Minnesota and holds professional designations as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Public Finance Officer (CPFO). He has been actively involved in the affordable housing industry for almost 18 years and has spoken on various accounting, finance and management topics at state and regional industry conferences.

Received 9 November 2008; Revised 9 November 2008; Published online 17 April 2009.

Abstract

With escalating health-care costs in the United States, it is easy to understand why health-care service providers operations such as hospitals, primary care physician practices are heavily focused on controlling cost of services to consumers. But there is another very important component to the health-care service providers profit equation – revenue. There are many things a health-care service provider can do to influence revenue, and one of the most important is implementation of Electronic Health Records. Electronic health record (EHR) systems hold substantial promise for improving the quality of health care in the United States while decreasing costs. Despite such promise, adoption rates for these systems in the United States remain quite low, particularly among primary care physicians, with funding often cited as the most significant barrier to their adoption. This study analyses the costs and benefits of EHR systems and presents a cost-benefit model for making the business case for their implementation in primary care settings in the United States for increased revenues and quality services.