Report: Wal-Mart to sell electronic medical records systems to physicians

New York City Wal-Mart Stores is entering the health-information technology market with plans to sell systems for handling electronic healthcare records in small medical practices, according to the New York Times.

The company’s Sam’s Club division, working with Dell for the computers and eClinicalWorks for software, plans this spring to make electronic medical records available for under $25,000 for the first physician in a practice and some $10,000 for each additional doctor, with continuing maintenance and support running another $4,000 to $6,500 a year, the report said.

The federal economic stimulus package also may grease the wheels for small practices: It offers financial incentives for doctors to adopt electronic records.