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Obesity Rating Must Be Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records, Says HHS
CNS News ^ | 7/15/2010 | Matt Cover

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: evilregime; skinnysebelius
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The Worst Lady is a lard butt so we need to have our privacy invaded by the Federal government. Talk about projection! We had better overturn this BS as well as everything enacted by the evil regime after the next presidential election. And Obama thinks Americans support this?

What a joke.

1 posted on 07/16/2010 5:11:36 AM PDT by IbJensen
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To: IbJensen

Makes it easier to decide who goes to the soap factories.


2 posted on 07/16/2010 5:15:38 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: IbJensen
Michelle Obama has made dealing with the problem of childhood obesity the main theme of her term as First Lady.

Cue the "Yo First Lady So Fat" jokes.

3 posted on 07/16/2010 5:17:14 AM PDT by P.O.E. ("Now who's being naive, Kaye?" - M. Corleone)
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To: IbJensen

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...


4 posted on 07/16/2010 5:17:41 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (What)
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To: IbJensen

Orwellian. Where do I report to the Department of BMI?


5 posted on 07/16/2010 5:18:23 AM PDT by DaxtonBrown (HARRY: Money Mob & Influence (See my Expose on Reid on amazon.com written by me!))
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To: IbJensen
It's a major problem when the feds or state pass a law that gives an agency the power to draw up the regulations under that law. It means non-elected bureaucrats are making the rules, rules which have the effect of law.
6 posted on 07/16/2010 5:18:26 AM PDT by jwparkerjr
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To: SpaceBar

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...


7 posted on 07/16/2010 5:19:02 AM PDT by silverleaf (Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.)
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To: P.O.E.

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.


8 posted on 07/16/2010 5:19:02 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: IbJensen
The folks in charge of all this appear to be unaware of the existence and power of simple arithmetic.

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!

9 posted on 07/16/2010 5:20:41 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: IbJensen

“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.


10 posted on 07/16/2010 5:21:30 AM PDT by DemforBush (Serpentine, Shel! SERPENTINE!)
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To: SpaceBar

Or sizing up the slave to determine what function they could perform.


11 posted on 07/16/2010 5:22:29 AM PDT by P.O.E. ("Now who's being naive, Kaye?" - M. Corleone)
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To: IbJensen

/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”!!


12 posted on 07/16/2010 5:25:19 AM PDT by Uncle Ike (Rope is cheap, and there are lots of trees...)
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To: muawiyah

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.


13 posted on 07/16/2010 5:28:15 AM PDT by Ayn And Milton
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To: P.O.E.

Your First Lady is so fat, the back of her neck looks like a package of hotdogs!


14 posted on 07/16/2010 5:29:39 AM PDT by reegs
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To: muawiyah

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.


15 posted on 07/16/2010 5:34:01 AM PDT by RatRipper (I'll ride a turtle to work every day before I buy anything from Government Motors.)
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To: SpaceBar

Looking for perfect human beings only. Does that sound familiar??


16 posted on 07/16/2010 5:34:13 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (What)
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To: IbJensen

I’m intending to refuse to be weighed. I’m not obese, but I’m not going to cooperate with this nonsense.


17 posted on 07/16/2010 5:35:20 AM PDT by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: SpaceBar

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.


18 posted on 07/16/2010 5:35:26 AM PDT by IbJensen ((Ps 109.8): "Let his days be few; and let another take his position.")
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To: IbJensen
The Government will use these statistics to decide who is ‘worthy’ of life preserving health care. This is the end of American personal freedom. All in the name of requiring us to do what the Left deems is good for us. To quote Anna from the ABC series ‘V’, 'we will use their emotions against them just like we did the Americans' (referring to the takeover of another nation).
19 posted on 07/16/2010 5:36:13 AM PDT by originalbuckeye
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To: Ayn And Milton
Look, even Erik Honnaker knew how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. You don't get to be Communist Party Secretary without those basic skills, if only to keep track of the bodies!

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!.

20 posted on 07/16/2010 5:36:41 AM PDT by muawiyah
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