Computer Programmers
Under the Affordable Care Act, doctors and hospitals must use electronic medical records, but taking their old paper system into the digital age is a giant technological construction project. “You need an army of programmers to put these things together,” says Osborne, of Staffing Industry Analysts. Indeed, the number of medical records and health information technicians employed in the U.S. has grown 7% to more than 182,000 since 2009, before the ACA was enacted, according to BLS data. Employment in other occupations, meanwhile, decreased or stayed flat during the same period, Osborne says.
Computer-related jobs in health care have grown more than 30% in the past five years, although they still represent less than 1% of all health care jobs, Turner says.
Under the Affordable Care Act, doctors and hospitals must use electronic medical records, but taking their old paper system into the digital age is a giant technological construction project. “You need an army of programmers to put these things together,” says Osborne, of Staffing Industry Analysts. Indeed, the number of medical records and health information technicians employed in the U.S. has grown 7% to more than 182,000 since 2009, before the ACA was enacted, according to BLS data. Employment in other occupations, meanwhile, decreased or stayed flat during the same period, Osborne says.
Computer-related jobs in health care have grown more than 30% in the past five years, although they still represent less than 1% of all health care jobs, Turner says.
Employers will also have to build new electronic systems to report the costs
of their employees’ health coverage to the government, although they will have
more time to do it, since the ACA 2014 deadline has been extended. The enormous
task may be over the head of many companies’ in-house IT departments, so
benefits and payroll firms are hiring their own engineers to create tools for
their clients.
Source: MarketWatch August 6, 2013
