VA drives federal health IT market growth to $8.5 billion, fueled by its EHR

The federal health IT market is seeing strong growth and will peak at $8.5 billion in 2022, which is being fueled in part by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs EHR initiative, according to a new Deltak report. Health IT is pegged at $6.1 billion in 2018, pushed by both the VA and Department of Defense EHR projects, the report found. VA and DoD spending is expected to peak in 2022 but will scale back spending on existing EHRs as new systems come online. As a result, federal health IT spending in 2023 is projected to drop slightly to $8.1 billion. Currently, the Department of Health and Human Services leads in IT spending, and as of 2017, the agency had about 40 percent of the $7.5 billion in government health IT spending. The VA’s spending was about 27 percent, while the DoD came in third at 24 percent.