Posted on 07/16/2010 5:11:32 AM PDT by IbJensen
CNSNews.com) – New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity.
The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.”
The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national exchange.
The new regulations are one of the first steps towards the government’s goal of universal adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by 2014, as outlined in the 2009 economic stimulus law. Specifically, the regulations issued on Tuesday by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, define the "meaningful use" of electronic records. Under the stimulus law, health care providers--including doctors and hospitals--must establish "meaningful use" of EHRs by 2014 in order to qualify for federal subsidies. After that, they will be subjected to penalties in the form of diminished Medicare and Medicaid payments for not establishing "meaningful use" of EHRs.
Section 3001 of the stimulus law says: "The National Coordinator shall, in consultation with other appropriate Federal agencies (including the National Institute of Standards and Technology), update the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan (developed as of June 3, 2008) to include specific objectives, milestones, and metrics with respect to the following: (i) The electronic exchange and use of health information and the enterprise integration of such information.‘‘(ii) The utilization of an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014."
Under this mandate in the stimulus law, Secretary Sebelius issued a regulation--developed by Dr. Blumenthal--that requires that all EHRs keep track of a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI) score. Body Mass Index is a ratio between a person’s weight and height, and is used to determine whether or not someone is overweight or obese. It is the preferred method of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for measuring obesity.
Michelle Obama has made dealing with the problem of childhood obesity the main theme of her term as First Lady.
U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. (Photo by Penny Starr/CNSNews.com) According to the CDC, “BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems.”
A person’s BMI score is used as a tool to screen for obesity or excessive body fat that could lead to other health problems. While it does not actually measure body fat directly, according to CDC, the BMI scores generally correlate with a person’s body fat percentage.
The new regulations also stipulate that the new electronic records be capable of sending public health data to state and federal health agencies such as HHS and CDC. The CDC, which calls American society “obesogenic” – meaning that American society itself promotes obesity – collects BMI scores from state health agencies every year to monitor obesity nationwide.
“Electronically record, retrieve, and transmit syndrome based public health surveillance information to public health agencies,” the regulations read.
With the spread of electronic health records, the CDC apparently will be able to collect such data more efficiently and with greater accuracy because the electronic record keeping systems can send the data automatically, eliminating the need for government – both state and federal – to keep, send, and process physical records.
What a joke.
Makes it easier to decide who goes to the soap factories.
Cue the "Yo First Lady So Fat" jokes.
The BMI is no big deal.....it’s the sharing that is none of the government’s business....or their business to pass on MY info...
Orwellian. Where do I report to the Department of BMI?
makes it easier to decide who gets priority for medical treatment
fat black people = underserved community - front of the vaccine line
fat white people = overserved community - back of the vaccine line. and forget that transplant...
Call me paranoid, but all this stuff with first the census, and now detailed health records for all citizens reminds me of a termite inspection before a house is sold.
If you have the height and weight of the person you can compute the body/mass index on an as needed basis.
Still, it's a fundamentally useless number for the provision of medical services to anyone. First of all it fails to account for quite profound racial differences among various groups. Your basic Negrito in the Philippines is just not organized like your 7 foot tall Viking type in Latvia for example, so the fact they had DIFFERENT body/mass index values wouldn't really help a medical team out in figuring out what to do should one of them have a broken arm and the other had a broken leg.
This high tech stuff ought to allow us to begin pushing back the shadows of "ignance" ~ not impose those shadows on everybody!
“The new regulations also stipulate that the new electronic records be capable of sending public health data to state and federal health agencies such as HHS and CDC”
Just thought I’d mention that Obama’s CDC Director, Thomas Frieden, was the guy who made it mandatory for NYC doctors to report the results of their patients’ blood glucose tests to the NYC Dept. of Health.
Or sizing up the slave to determine what function they could perform.
/misquote
First, they came for the smokers, and you cheered, because you were not a smoker...
Next, they came for the fatties...
/misquote
“Demonize>Marginalize>Criminalize”!!
Good reasoning! I’d add that it is indeed worthless, as you say it, but it is also squeezing different folks into the same silly and samey set of parameters.
I am thinking of the GDR of old, now.
Your First Lady is so fat, the back of her neck looks like a package of hotdogs!
there could be a huge difference between two people who are 5’10” weighing 220: one could be sloppy fat and the other ripped with muscle. This is ridiculous.
Looking for perfect human beings only. Does that sound familiar??
I’m intending to refuse to be weighed. I’m not obese, but I’m not going to cooperate with this nonsense.
Think of the excitement! We’re finally beginning to live in a true Communist nation!
An underground will be formed and fighting socialist government troops will follow. Minutemen brigades will be formed to fight the communist dictator and his minions.
We’ll have spies and daily news stories about ‘some’ confrontations. We’ll get to share our one family homes with many families.
We’ll have long lines trying to get a loaf of bread with a basket of worthless money.
Our children will be indoctrinated and become members of the Socialist Amerika Young Pioneers who will tattle to the gauleiters as to critical remarks uttered by their unenlightened parents.
Many concentration camps will spring up in every state filled with those fortunate enough not to have been executed. Think of all the jobs that will be created for illegal aliens that will guard and torture us.
The number is readily computed by anyone who thinks he needs it. Frankly no one needs it so there's no need to compute it and add it to my medical record ~ I'd much rather have "prefers seal loin lightly sauteed without butter" Now that's a much more useful bit of information!.
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