Wal-Mart to roll out e-health records.

• Position: HEALTH RECORDS - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Sam's Club

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Wal-Mart stores plan to jump into the electronic health record market by bringing the technology to physicians in small practices.

According to a New York Times report, Wal-Mart will offer a package--hardware, software, installation, maintenance, and training--that it says will make the technology more accessible and affordable. It plans to team its Sam's Club division with Dell for computers and eClinicalWorks for software.

The Sam's Club offering, which will become available soon, will cost under $25,000 for the first physician in a practice, and about $10,000 for each additional doctor, according to the Times. After installation and training, continuing annual costs for maintenance and support will be between $4,000 and $6,500 a year, the company estimates.

Precisely because of the cost and complex technology issues involved, many small-practice doctors have shunned e-health records to date. And, only about 17% percent of U.S. physicians are currently using computerized patient records, according to a 2008 government-sponsored survey published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The use of e-health records is widespread in large physician groups, but three-fourths of the nation's doctors work in small practices with 10 physicians or fewer.

However, Wal-Mart's offering, along with the Obama administration's economic stimulus incentives, has the potential to change that. Over the next few years, Obama's stimulus plan provides $19 billion in incentives--more than $40,000 per physician--to install and use e-health records. Wal-Mart's offer of lower costs and an efficient distribution channel may interest small physician groups at last.

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