The gloomy reports of today’s economy often cite how unemployment is up at an all-time high. Indeed, as of August 2009, the jobless rate for the United States has crept up to 9.7%. That number is up significantly from 6.2% from August 2008. Many experts believe that the tough job market should remain in effect for a few more years. However, they mainly refer to the manufacturing job sector which is in need of life support.
In February 2009, President Obama and the US Congress enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly known as the stimulus bill. The bill is designed to infuse $787 billion into the ailing US economy so that, among other objectives, jobs are created or saved.
There are a handful of job sectors and industries that are poised to capitalized from the stimulus bill. The funds are directed to “modernizing our health care, improving our schools, modernizing our infrastructure, and investing in the clean energy technologies of the future…”
As mentioned, one sector that should receive a nice boost in funds is health care. More specifically, President Obama has targeted the improvement of the way private and public health care facilities throughout the nation share patient information and medical records. The improvement is expected to bring down the cost of health insurance and treating patients. This objective is an overhaul of the health care information system throughout the country and it will be primarily funded by stimulus money.
As a testament to the potential in the health care information sector, Bloomberg reports on September 22, 2009 that Dell Inc looks to acquire Perot Systems Corp. Some experts are praising the move because the personal PC and laptop market is very tough and looks to be even more competitive with the popularity of the low cost netbooks. Looking for new sources of income could only help out Dell’s bottom line. The purchase of Perot System could provide that new source. Perot System’s existing customers include the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, hospitals, private physicians’ practices, and health-insurance companies.
That’s fantastic news for health care information professionals. Anyone working in this particular job sector, from medical billing & coding to systems analyst to project management in information technology should be seeing job security for the better part of the next 5 years or more.
