Posted on 04/14/2010 5:45:07 AM PDT by EBH
In February, the state received a $28.5 million federal grant to help about 6,000 physicians move to electronic records.
The federal government has long pushed for electronic health records and will reward doctors who get on board with higher Medicare reimbursements. Those who dont switch eventually will be penalized.
Gov. Ted Strickland announced this afternoon the seven Ohio groups chosen to help physicians make this transition.
The money will be used to educate doctors about different systems on the market, provide technical support and to make sure vendors do their job.
With fewer than 25 percent of Ohio's 30,000 physicians using electronic medical records, the move from paper to computer could take as long as five years, experts say.
The other groups chosen are: the Akron Regional Hospital Association; Case Western Reserve University; the Greater Dayton Area Health Information Network; the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio; Northeast Ohio HealthForce; and Ohio University.
Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, a regional electronic health-records entity, received its own grant of $9.7 million to help doctors make the switch.
I’m letting my doctors know that they do NOT have my permission to electronically file ANY of my medical information.
Actually, you do not even own your medical records.
I used to work in a hospital and a person could be fired if they looked at their own medical records. Insane, but that is the way the rules are written. Not sure how many know that is the case.
The only ones who are going to benefit from this debacle are the companies that sell the software.
And who knows? Those software companies may end up being nationalized.
Those software companies may end up being nationalized.”
They are already involved with the government up to their ears. The software they sell provides the vehicle by which all medical records will be transferred to Washington and is already in use between the doctor’s office and Medicare. So I am sure the programs were written to government specs. During 2009 some docs were “encouraged” to send in medical records, diagnosis and prescription records with Medicare claims for which they received a very small increase in fee payment. This carrot will soon be removed and the next phase is the penalty - you do it or your fee reimbursement will be decreased until finally you get nothing. This allows Medicare to develop standards of treatment. If your diagnosis is X, you can see your doctor X number of times per year and the only meds they can prescribe are X. Treatment will be strictly controlled based on regulations developed by bean counters using models developed based on electronic medical records.
This is a drop in the bucket compared to what will be needed, when you consider the cost of the hardware, and software, the disruption to their business work flows, lost productivity during the transition, training the office staff, converting paper records to electronic, documenting compliance with the HITECH Act's "meaningful use" criteria, modifying office space to provide the security required by HIPAA, etc., etc., etc.
How much of that $4,750 do you really think the physicians will see? It's nothing but a handout to the organizations that will "promote" the adoption of electronic medical records. It is yet another ripoff of the American people.
Nearly 1 MILLION have their information threatened in theft of Blue Cross hard drives
http://www.cmio.net/index.php?option=com_articles&view=article&id=21670&division=cmio
so the Assistant Registrar of Wills in Cuyahoga County will some day have one-click access to all of Joe the Plumber’s medical records
So it sounds like the money that was supposed to go to doctors to help them switch, is instead being spent by the government in regulating how they switch, with some going to special vendors chosen by the government to “help” the doctors with the switch.
Folks should trust but verify to make sure the records are accurate.
I guess I’m a paranoid idiot...but I don’t want any of my records sent to this electronic debacle.
One mistake, one garbage mistake like the wrong medication and they could kill me. They are going to rely on this electronic record over my identification, my medical bracelet warning them, etc.
Add onto that my records are no longer private. Hippa, shippa! It ain’t gonna be private no longer.
I’m not too keen on it, either. But if they’re going to do it anyway, folks should make darn sure their records are accurate.
My doctors use 100% electronic records.
What can it mean?
1. It does not mean that errors are not made in the record.
2. The electronic record is not questioned, by anyone, as much as was the old written records.
3. Taken together that can be a bad, or even a worse thing, when something in the electronic record is wrong.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.