It began with a simple message in my mailbox.  "Poll for your blog - Will RECs deliver on their mission?"  I bopped over to the softwareadvice.com piece about RECs and was pleasantly surprised by their analysis of the REC process so far.  Their analysis lines up with our experiences as a vendor.  Because we work specifically with pediatricians, we will never be on a REC "preferred vendor" list (even here in Vermont, where the REC is supposed to focus on local companies).  Worse, because we focus on a non-Medicare speciality, the RECs don't even really understand what hoops our clientshave to jump through.

There is a survey at the top, I only wish they'd display the running results so we can see what the results are.  The article did lead me to this very informative survey from the eHealth Initiative about RECs that I had not seen yet.

Then, the GOP released it's Pledge To America.  They are very clear that, should GOP regain the majority role in Congress, they will eliminate all of the health stimulus spending, which presumably includes all ARRA and REC funding (and HIE funding, I assume).  Wow, would that throw a curve ball into the market.  I wonder how many of those "ARRA Guarantees" include language to protect new EHR purchasers in the event that ARRA doesn't actually pay anything?

How about none?

I've stood in front of a lot of people and said, "You know, that money isn't guaranteed at all..." and most folks raise an eyebrow like I'm crazy.  We'll see.