The headlines read;
""I.T. and data mining capabilities had a role in dismantaling what authorities are calling the largest Medicare fraud scheme ever, involving 73 memebrs of organized crime and more than $163 million in fraudulent billing"".
So the acused are a group of Armenin-American organized crime (AKA mafia!) members. They submitted fraudlent bills to medicare for treatments never performed. The defendants stole the identity of thousands of doctors and beneficiares in 25 states using 118 phony clinics!
They got caught because of todays IT capabilities! Pretty cool. ""The DOJ has created the IOC-2 crime center in an effort to combat international crime'' said acting Dept Atty. Gen. Gary Grinder. An undisclosed Information Technology played the critical role. Essentially the HEAT intiative of 2009 developed by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is the basis for this advancement. this program uses IT that does in a few days what used to take months!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
The EHR implementation and the US health care system
Welcome to my HIT blog.
My primary purpose is to share my experiences and perspectives from a clinicians point of view during a rapidly changing world of Health Care and Information Technology.
As a result of the recent Federal Government incentives and dis-incentives, I think the EMR is going to finally begin to take shape in the U.S. health care system. This change will not be a simple one. In fact, I think it will be far more complex here in this country as opposed to elsewheere. This is due to the fact that we are not a uniform centralized government controlled health care system (AKA national health care). In reality, we are a vastly diverse, private based, often for profit, multi level system with 3rd party payors. In addition, there are large independent systems such as Kaiser and there are government run systems like the Veterans Adminstraion.
In countries where it is centralized it is easy to mandate a single approach to EMR implementation and HIT structures. In our country we will need to work with all the parties. In fact, we will need to win over the hearts and minds of both the Clinician and the Patient. Our patients will soon play an even greater role in their own care as they are able to gain easy access to their records, contact their physicians etc.
A true metric for success in this arena is the integration of HIT into health care in a way that clearly benefits the involved parties. In other words, the Physician actually improves health care delivery, by being more efficient and thorough. The patient benefits by being far more actively involved in their own care, and thus playing a preventive role as they gain access to their own EHR. The EHR should not just be a "techy" tool for the 21st century but actually transform how we practice medicine and therefore improving care overall.
History has shown that these tools of technology can be beneficial or counterproductive depending on their application and the limits on their use. Cell phones are now a fabulous avenue for personal communication, but they are also clearly demonstrated to be dangerous to use while driving. Or in the extreme example, the advent of the atomic bomb during the manhattan project showed the world that atomic energy is incredibly useful and yet equally dangerous!
As informaticists we are charged with the task of guiding the process of automation integration into healthcare while maintaining the uniquely "human element" that is so fundamental to health care.
I would love to hear you point of view!!
My primary purpose is to share my experiences and perspectives from a clinicians point of view during a rapidly changing world of Health Care and Information Technology.
As a result of the recent Federal Government incentives and dis-incentives, I think the EMR is going to finally begin to take shape in the U.S. health care system. This change will not be a simple one. In fact, I think it will be far more complex here in this country as opposed to elsewheere. This is due to the fact that we are not a uniform centralized government controlled health care system (AKA national health care). In reality, we are a vastly diverse, private based, often for profit, multi level system with 3rd party payors. In addition, there are large independent systems such as Kaiser and there are government run systems like the Veterans Adminstraion.
In countries where it is centralized it is easy to mandate a single approach to EMR implementation and HIT structures. In our country we will need to work with all the parties. In fact, we will need to win over the hearts and minds of both the Clinician and the Patient. Our patients will soon play an even greater role in their own care as they are able to gain easy access to their records, contact their physicians etc.
A true metric for success in this arena is the integration of HIT into health care in a way that clearly benefits the involved parties. In other words, the Physician actually improves health care delivery, by being more efficient and thorough. The patient benefits by being far more actively involved in their own care, and thus playing a preventive role as they gain access to their own EHR. The EHR should not just be a "techy" tool for the 21st century but actually transform how we practice medicine and therefore improving care overall.
History has shown that these tools of technology can be beneficial or counterproductive depending on their application and the limits on their use. Cell phones are now a fabulous avenue for personal communication, but they are also clearly demonstrated to be dangerous to use while driving. Or in the extreme example, the advent of the atomic bomb during the manhattan project showed the world that atomic energy is incredibly useful and yet equally dangerous!
As informaticists we are charged with the task of guiding the process of automation integration into healthcare while maintaining the uniquely "human element" that is so fundamental to health care.
I would love to hear you point of view!!
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