Posted on 10/23/2015 7:40:25 PM PDT by 100American
http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2015/10/23/doctors-agree-obamas-electronic-medical-records-mandate-sucks-n2069809?bt_alias=eyJ1c2VySWQiOiJkNmM1NGMxZS1kY2NkLTRmYjktODdmZi02ZmIzMmFmZDEzYjgifQ%3D%3D
Hey, who's up for a stiff dose of "See, I told you so?" For the past several years, medical professionals have warned that the federal electronic medical records mandate -- buried in the trillion-dollar Obama stimulus of 2009 -- would do more harm than good. Their diagnosis, unfortunately, is on the nose.
The Quack-in-Chief peddled his tech-centric elixir as a cost-saving miracle. "This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests," he crowed at the time. In theory, of course, modernizing record-collection is a good idea, which many private health care providers had already adopted before the Healer of All Things took office.
But in the clumsy, power-grabbing hands of Washington bureaucrats, Obama's one-size-fits-all EMR regulations have morphed into what one expert called "healthcare information technology's version of cash-for-clunkers."
I reported in 2012 how my own primary care physician quit her regular practice and converted to "concierge care" because of the meddlesome EMR burden. Untold numbers of docs across the country have done the same.
In 2013, health care analysts at the RAND Corporation admitted that their cost-savings predictions of $81 billion a year were vastly inflated.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Apparently one of the requirements is to record weight and height in metric, because that’s what happened today when I went to a new doctor. Weight and height were actually measured in in pounds and inches, and then they had to use the computer to convert to metric for entering the data in metric in their electronic records.
The tech asked if I wanted to know what my height and weight was in metric and I told her no one hardly anyone but chemists and physicists gave a crap about metric, but I would be interested in knowing how much my weight was in stones.
“I quit practicing, it just wasn’t worth it anymore”
I really do understand that sentiment and know a lot of physicians are feeling and doing the same.
It is tragic to me that a group of highly educated people are being forced out because of the dang government and their b.s.
“ICD-10 comes with greater specificity and more numerous codes. There are approximately 68,000 ICD-10 codes compared to 14,000 ICD-9 codes. Medical practices are going through immense pressure due to ICD-10 implementation.”
Actual codes:
Pecked by a chicken
Bitten by a turtle
Bitten by a cow
Struck by a duck
Walked into a light pole
Sucked into a jet engine
Etc.
I love the electronic medical record. I have had one for at least a decade and it is awesome. Go to any doctor in the VA and they have it all. Every last test I took from 18 until 46. Some just like to complain just to complain.
That's in no small part due to the cronyism embedded in the federal stimulus "incentives"
Insiders allowed to play in a highly regulated government oligopoly. In return for access and guaranteed profits, they fully support the political and policy aims of the regime.
‘that only one vendor could supply’
‘that only one Democrat vendor could supply’......there, fixed it.
I think he has someone locally x-scribing the paper files to codes for billing on a PC, and an outside firm doing the billing based on that. Not exactly like the “old days” of local files & billing, but that is pretty hard these days! My elderly mother lives in the “boonies” and sees a doc in a 1 doc/1 PA office with a part-time bookkeeper/billing!! An endangered species!
you are totally correct thanks for correction
Bookmark.
There in lies the rub. The VA indeed has a very good and functional EMR system, and it was available at very low or no cost to whatever US hospital system wanted to use it. However, with support from the Obama administration a very expensive and dysfunctional system called EPIC has been adopted by a very large and growing number of hospital systems across the US.
EPIC was built upon a billing program, and what it primarily tries to do is coordinate ‘work’ that you do with the proper billing codes, and the determination of ‘work’ that a physician does is based literally upon clicking on screen ‘boxes’ during the visit. Seriously. When EPIC is instituted into a hospital system that didn't have it before, they are generally only going back 2-3 years in what they input into each patients record. So It wouldn't matter that your doc has information on you from age 18-46. EPIC would only have actual records from the past 2-3 years. The details of a surgery you might have had at 20 would not be in EPIC.
I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that the vast majority of physicians would be very happy with a system that made patient care better and more efficient, irrespective of having to learn a new system etc. That's not the case with EPIC. The bean counters and ‘outcomes analysis’ statisticians have this grandiose idea that they are going to be able to track the health of all Americans electronically, and monitor disease patterns and trends, and physician compliance with ‘guidelines’ etc all from the comfort of their laptops or tablets. The problem is that as with all databases, if it's garbage in then it will be garbage out.
I have little doubt that a few programmers and actual practicing physicians sitting down together could hammer out a much, much better system in a short time at a fraction of the cost.
Oh. I am sorry. I did not know that. I can see why this would be unacceptable. I am sure that Obama picked this one because he would’t want to be seen as supporting the troops at all even if it is not good for the country (his requested electronic records system).
This crap was in the works long before 0bama arrived on the scene. I was once employed at a hospital in Mississippi that participated in an electronic records trial in the early 1990s. Of course it was a disaster billed as health care of the future.
The only ones benefiting from EMR are the vendors of computers and software.
I’d venture that far more than 50% of the records are unrelated to health care. A very large portion are for CYA from trial lawyers.
And you are absolutely Correct, I worked for FileNet the main driver in records management in the beginning and from previous experience watched for the “portability” and manageability of the information native to the Doctors work but burdened with all of the regulatory and as you say “butt covering” info for the “Lawyers”. Today it is still there in a very relevant topic and that is e-mail. People have become lazy, and or devious in using this as a convenient “cargo” vessel to send not only their words but typically some kind of “payload” such as a file attachment, pictures, Radar images, strategy conclusions.....
I take it this way as Hillary to me is more a matter of scale of her brashness therefore the volume of her crimes that need the data and the crime associated.
In Industry terms
Big Data..
EMR is a whole other Campaign and the NSA is deeply entwined due to Obamacare and others
Does Townhall require excerpting ?
Not sure, if I click the box does it mess with links and formatting? Still working out kinks..
Thx
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