Most people agree that the healthcare system needs to become more affordable and efficient. While some commentators have criticized the government's efforts to accomplish this by getting more physicians to use EHRs, others say the initiatives have been just what the country needs.

Giving various healthcare stakeholders greater access to vital data will become a "transformative" theme in the delivery of care, HealthCamp conference founder Mark Scrimshire told Fierce Health IT.

He said that health IT tools like EHRs are creating new business models that operate more efficiently and deliver better quality, while simultaneously giving patients greater control of their own care. Scrimshire attributed these developments to the efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services.

"The idea of unleashing health data and encouraging the entrepreneurial and developmental communities to make use of that data is transformative," Scrimshire told the news source. "This is just one part of the puzzle in transforming healthcare."

Healthcare costs have increased at a faster rate than inflation and worker wages, and a major reason for this is inefficiencies, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.