Are Digital Records Losing Steam?

Arm twisting by powerful health care lobbies stands a good chance of persuading the Obama administration to relax its ambitious timetable for digitizing the country's medical records.

Dr. David Brailer, a former national coordinator for health information technology, predicts that special interests "will probably" succeed in slowing down the switch from paper to electronic health records, according to The Boston Globe. The government has committed billions of dollars in incentive payments to doctors who adopt EHRs by 2015.

The American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association say the push for change is "too much, too soon," the Globe reported. The groups want the government to loosen qualifications and extend the deadline for receiving incentive funds to 2017.

The law allows for incentive payments of up to $44,000 to doctors and $2 million or more to hospitals.