Guns are now a health issue.
Patient privacy non-existent; Doctors now required to provide all medical records to federal government
February 13, 2014 Coach Collins Leave a comment
by Doug Book, editor
Over the past 2 decades, Republican and Democrat Administrations have joined forces to require the use by physicians and hospitals of government-certified, interoperable electronic medical records systems, or EMRs. These online record keeping systems will send personal patient information collected by all participating providers directly to the centralized Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, a newly created government agency whose job is making the medical records of the American people “inter-operable–” that is, instantly accessible to any “qualified” agency or agent.
For example, if the patient of a New Jersey physician should become the victim of a medical emergency in Nevada, stored medical information will be instantly available to a Las Vegas surgeon. Expensive and time consuming testing may be unnecessary as the patient’s entire medical history will be a matter of computer record.
On its face, the advent of EMRs appears to be a boon for patients and doctors alike. But as with all federally mandated contributions to the greater good, any advantages associated with EMRs are guaranteed to benefit and serve the DC bureaucracy and not the American people.
First of all, why should it be necessary to FORCE participation of healthcare providers in the EMR system by means of financial blackmail? “Doctors who do not participate by 2015 will be penalized 1 percent of their Medicare payments, which increases to 3 percent over 3 years.” The state of Massachusetts reports that “…60 percent of doctors could not meet the EMR mandate and face potential loss of their licenses in 2015.” Quite a weighty stick to wield against physicians who have dedicated years of their lives and countless dollars to secure that license to practice medicine.