A key provision within ObamaCare was the passage of legislation to encourage physicians and hospitals to implement electronic medical records. Between 2008 and 2012 was an intense time of lobbying for the passage of this legislation and how the rules for government incentive would be shaped.
Glen Tullman until recently was the chief executive of AllScripts, a major player in the electronic medical record space. He was also an advisor to the Obama Campaign in 2008, and according to the New York Times
, he personally made more than $200,000 in political contributions to the Obama Campaign.
AllScripts, of course, was a major beneficiary on terms of their revenue growth over the last few years. He was also a an adviser to the White House.
Cerner, another major player in EMR space, spent nearly $400,000 in lobbying between 2006 and 2012 according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Cerner, of course, has continued to achieve record growth with Neal Patterson, their CEO and Founder, often referred to as one of the ObamaCare billionaires as reported on the cover of Forbes. Interestingly, the former head of the White House Office for Health Reform, Nancy de Parle, used to sit on the board for Cerner prior to her appointment.
From the period of 2009 to 2010 hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on lobbying the issue to electronic medical records, according to the New York Times.