WASHINGTON – A bill that provides loans of up to $350,000 for physicians and $2 million for medical groups to buy electronic health record systems or other healthcare information technology is likely to benefit solo and small group practices the most, according to investment bank Piper Jaffrey.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved HR 3014, sponsored by Rep. Kathleen A. Dahlkemper (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Small Business Regulations and Healthcare Subcommittee. The Small Business Health IT Financing Act would authorize the Small Business Administration to oversee a $10 billion loan program for healthcare providers.

The bill now faces Senate action.

"The smaller provider market is the greatest beneficiary of this, given the limits on the loan size," said Sean Wieland, Piper Jaffrey's senior research analyst, in a brief. "A five-doc group can get a max loan for $2 million. A 100-doc group can also get a max loan for $2 million. Therefore, we think it will accelerate adoption levels in the five-doc-and-under market."

"It's apparent that the government is making the ambulatory sector the center of their efforts," Wieland said.

The brief, written by Wieland and research analyst Nohan A. Naidu, also notes that athenahealth is well positioned to benefit from the program. The Watertown, Mass.-based provider of Web-based electronic health record and practice management services for physicians "is best positioned to take share in this segment because of their in-the-cloud approach to both practice management and clinicals," Wieland said.

Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions and Quality Systems, Inc,. are also well positioned to gain market share in this sector, Wieland noted.