By Evan Falchuk

The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) held its Business Health Agenda in Washington, DC this week. The NBGH is one of the most influential groups in the country in terms of healthcare from the perspective of large employers. This hasn’t happened by accident – its President, Helen Darling, has long held the vision that if you provide a forum for the leaders of American healthcare to share their experiences and challenges, you can create innovative solutions to our healthcare problems. If the high level of attendance at this event (in a terribly down year for conference attendance) is any indication, it’s working.

One of the hottest topics discussed this year was electronic medical records (EMR), highlighted in the most newsworthy way by Linda Dillman, the EVP of Benefits and Risk Management at Wal-Mart Stores. Wal-Mart made news yesterday with the announcement that its Sam’s Club stores would be selling EMR systems to doctors’ offices at prices far below the current market for such things. Dillman told us that although they haven’t officially launched the program yet, they got their first call from a physician practice asking to buy the system 20 minutes after the press release hit the wire. They seem to be onto something, not even counting the nearly $20 billion in the stimulus bill targeted at EMRs. (more…)