Bill offers tax breaks for health IT

Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D. (R-Ga.), introduced legislation last month that would increase the first year of rapid depreciation for qualifying equipment - including electronic healthcare records - from $100,000 to $250,000, according to a summary from Gingrey's office.

"This gives physician offices a greater incentive by allowing them to write off more of the total expense of an electronic medical record system in the first year," the summary states.

The bill also would increase the purchase maximum for qualifying equipment from $400,000 to $600,000 in any given year, enabling physicians to deduct other medical equipment purchases in the same year that they bought an electronic records system.

Congressional co-sponsors of the legislation include Reps. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.V.), Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), Cathy McMorris (R-Wash.) and Charlie Norwood (R-Ga.). Text of H.R. 4641 is available at  http://thomas.loc.gov.

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