and so it begins....

[Fingon]

One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

 

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

 

New Penalties

 

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aLzfDxfbwhzs

 

One more reason to oppose the stimulus bill.

[BillsNYC]

Anybody watching Fox News? They're losing their minds! Just had Arlen Specter and a Democratic Senator on and neither knew this was in there, neither knows what it is, and neither supports it when read what it says saying its socialized healthcare. They both said they are going to look into it....uh....the vote is in less than two hours guys!

 

Great...our government is about to spend a trillion dollars and are being rushed into it...and they don't even know what it is.

[Keukasmallies]

Gee, I'm just shocked that our legislators would vote on a bill w/o understanding the letter and spirit of the proposed legislation! Oh, Oh, Alice, you just dropped one of your glass slippers....

[Johnny Coli]

The person who wrote the Bloomberg opinion piece in the OP was using the first House bill, and I also think she was reading it wrong. I just read through the section of the version that the Senate actually just procedurally voted on, and I don't think it is saying what she is reading into it.

 

Specifically, if you read through Section 3001 OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (using the latest Senate version), the job of the National Coordinator looks to be a position that overlooks the standardization and implementation of the technology infrastructure of the electronic healthcare data, not the actual care. It's an info-tech coordinator position, not someone looking over the shoulder of the health care provider in the examination room, and not someone dictating actual care. At least that was what I got out of reading it.

 

Makes sense, because if you're going to try and implement a usefull national system of electronic health information you don't want multiple platforms that can't cross-talk or share information. You want to incorporate standards based on input from all the relevant parties. That requires a coordinator. We don't want to put into place a clusterfug like they had to deal with in trying to synchronize all the law enforcement databases after 2001. Put down the pitchforks, people. There is no reason for outrage here.

[DC Tom]

The person who wrote the Bloomberg opinion piece in the OP was using the first House bill, and I also think she was reading it wrong. I just read through the section of the version that the Senate actually just procedurally voted on, and I don't think it is saying what she is reading into it.

 

Specifically, if you read through Section 3001 OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (using the latest Senate version), the job of the National Coordinator looks to be a position that overlooks the standardization and implementation of the technology infrastructure of the electronic healthcare data, not the actual care. It's an info-tech coordinator position, not someone looking over the shoulder of the health care provider in the examination room, and not someone dictating actual care. At least that was what I got out of reading it.

 

Makes sense, because if you're going to try and implement a usefull national system of electronic health information you don't want multiple platforms that can't cross-talk or share information. You want to incorporate standards based on input from all the relevant parties. That requires a coordinator. We don't want to put into place a clusterfug like they had to deal with in trying to synchronize all the law enforcement databases after 2001. Put down the pitchforks, people. There is no reason for outrage here.

 

 

Have a link to it?

 

It's not that I'm too lazy to look it up...just too busy. (I mean, I AM too lazy...but that's beside the point.)

[Johnny Coli]

Have a link to it?

 

It's not that I'm too lazy to look it up...just too busy. (I mean, I AM too lazy...but that's beside the point.)

Just use the link in the OP...she links to all five versions, yet picks the passed house version, for some reason. I didn't use the page numbers because it's easier to just look through the html text. I read the latest version (5 of 5). What is notable is that she didn't provide any full quotes. If she had I believe the "rage" of the opinion piece would have fallen flat. This is clearly an info tech coordination position. At least that is how I read it.

 

EDIT:

It not actually being in there as she described is probably what led to Specter's confusion during the Fox interview that was alluded to in a previous post. He didn't know it was in there because its not.

 

[Dan]

Just use the link in the OP...she links to all five versions, yet picks the passed house version, for some reason. I didn't use the page numbers because it's easier to just look through the html text. I read the latest version (5 of 5). What is notable is that she didn't provide any full quotes. If she had I believe the "rage" of the opinion piece would have fallen flat. This is clearly an info tech coordination position. At least that is how I read it.

 

EDIT:

It not actually being in there as she described is probably what led to Specter's confusion during the Fox interview that was alluded to in a previous post. He didn't know it was in there because its not.

 

Much agreed. I think this is someone that's completely misquoting or misunderstanding what they're reading:

 

PURPOSE.—The National Coordinator shall per4

form the duties under subsection © in a manner con5

sistent with the development of a nationwide health infor6

mation technology infrastructure that allows for the elec7

tronic use and exchange of information and that—

 

‘‘(4) provides appropriate information to help

18 guide medical decisions at the time and place of

19 care;

 

As I read that, I interpret it to mean the National Coodinator [for Health Information Technology] shall help develop the technology infrastructure that allows for appropriate information to help guide medical decisions.

 

Now, I suppose you could say that's bad because this National Coordinator will be guiding decisions, but I think that's reading too much into it. I'd suggest they're talking about creating the digital records that doctors can access to help them guide their medical decisions. I guess the devil will be in the implementation.

 

I didn't completely read the sections referring to "Meaningful Users" because I assumed there are similar differences in interpretation. However, the little I did read said that the HHS Sec. would have a grant program as an incentive for doctors to use the national database and that meaningful EHR users would get the grant funds, non users wouldn't. Again though, that was just a very cursory reading of a few pages related to meaningful EHR users.

 

 

Certainly, the government getting involved with telling doctors what type of care to provide is a bug issue. But, I just don't see that here. All the language in this bill seems to be referring to the development and implementation of a national database. Now, maybe the next step will be to misuse that information to dictate care, but that fight will have to come at the time that bill is proposed.