As always it comes back to money. You can read the article and see where nobody denies the value but how do you get the value when the dollars are not there. I think more and more areas of Health IT 
will be asking the same question. This is not to be confused with “insurance exchanges” in this instance as this is for sharing medical records only. The group has gone to insurance companies to see if they will kick in some money. I wouldn’t be one to hold my breath on that one but you never know, but grants seem to be more the way to get funded with medical health data if they can be had.
Even with meaningful use incentives, some hospitals needs those dollars to stay open in some hardship cases. Big hospitals don’t want to pay 6 figure dollar amounts to participate as they have ton already invested in their own IT expenditures and those are growing too. Even with non profit organizations that will in time benefit patient care, you still need money and can’t be priced out of the market as to what can be afforded it appears. BD
Money is a sticking point, with some hospitals asked to pay six-figure annual fees to participate in the exchange. Big medical centers already have invested heavily in their own IT systems. They question the wisdom of plunking down more money on an electronic platform of uncertain value to them.
“No one really has a strong incentive to buy in and spend more than they're getting back without some long-term demonstrated value,” says Allan Friedman, research director at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, who has studied exchanges
The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, a nonprofit group of about 150 hospitals and healthcare providers, began organizing the Chicago-area exchange in 2009.
Despite initial interest, just 18 hospitals and physicians groups have agreed to join, says Dan Yunker, senior vice president of MCHC, which had planned to roll out the exchange a year ago. The start has been pushed back until mid-2013, he says.
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20121223/INFO/312229943#ixzz2GHv72MPB
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