What Ms. Malkin does not address in this article is something far more insidious: in order to collect the $44,000 in incentive payments for installing an EMR program, providers must comply with certain requirements, including the requirement to send data on Medicare and Medicaid patients to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Rockville, Maryland. This is not discretionary: providers are required to use EMR systems approved by CMS, systems that tie into the CMS system and send data to CMS. So much for patient privacy, eh?
Privacy? LOL!
I worked for a major hospital group that is still in the process of implementing their EMR product utilizing Cerner. The amount of waste and outright corruption was MIND BOGGLING! And you think your personal data is safe? We had at least 4 intrusion attempts per year with at least 1 getting into systems that contained patient data. Our security teams were an absolute joke.
Hospitals are generally non-profit and pay their non-clinical staff peanuts compared to the for-profit world. IT people who love what they do and will work for whatever wage will occupy those IT positions. Those with aspirations to higher IT and better wages go to for-profit business. Then you have who my wife affectionately calls “The C students.” Sadly, the C-students occupy a majority of those IT positions.
Do not opt-in to any biometric tracking programs if you’re admitted to a hospital. That data will get out.
They’re trying to put something like the VA’s VistA/MyHealthEvet in place for the entire country, and it ain’t working, for obvious reasons.
Ping for later reading.