On Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman
In 2008, Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman told Alex Nussbaurm of Bloomberg.com that physicians should take out loans to invest in his EHR product “to ensure that doctors have some skin in the game.” What did you expect? How much charm does it take to sell federally subsidized products when everyone knows that they’re mandated anyway?
Life Sans Blumenthal
Yesterday, Nicole Lewis posted “Health IT’s Future without David Blumenthal” – a glowing and arguably deserved tribute to Dr. David Blumenthal who is leaving the ONC
From where I’m sitting, it’s clear that Tullman used Lewis and InformationWeek to score more points with Washington and Wall Street, while continuing to marginalize the interests of those who actually take out loans to purchase his product: “David shepherded ONC through a very critical time . . . the creation, definition, and implementation of meaningful use, which really is a way to ensure that physicians actually use electronic records to improve care, but also that taxpayers get good value for their investment.” What about the doctor’s investment and more importantly, if a doctor is busy clicking on links to qualify for meaningful use dollars, who is accountable to the patients?
I don’t know about you, but it’s not difficult for me to recognize that like other HIT stakeholders whose careers are propped up by easy mandates rather than finicky satisfied customers, Tullman indeed has solid free-market reasons to play to investors and politicians while fearing his customers. They’re pissed at the man.
A Nationwide Survey
HCPlexus recently partnered with Thompson Reuters to conduct a nationwide survey of almost 3,000 physicians concerning their opinions of the quality of health care in the near future considering the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Electronic Medical Records, and their effects on physicians and their patients. (See “5-page Executive Summary”)
http://www.hcplexus.com/PDFs/Summary—2011-Thomson-Reuters-HCPlexus-National-P
“Sixty-five percent of respondents believe that the quality of health care in the country will deteriorate in the near term. Many cited political reasons, anger directed at insurance companies, and critiques of the reform act – some articulating the strong feelings they have regarding the negative effects they expect from the PPACA.”
At this crucial time when Republicans are already threatening to cut off remaining HITECH funding, whose job will it be to break the news to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that the EHR savings she was counting on to fund a major portion of healthcare reform are only as valuable as CEO Tullman’s politically-correct fantasy? Pop! From what Nicole Lewis writes, my bet is that the Secretary won’t take the news well: “[Sebelius] reiterated that the successful adoption and use of HIT is fundamental to virtually every other important goal in the reform of the nation’s health care system.” Such pressure from the top down will make it even more difficult for HIT stakeholders, including insurers and politicians, to disown the most egregious. crowd-pleasin’, bi-partisan blunder in medical history since blood-letting was declared Best Practice by popular demand.
According to the HCPlexus-Reuters survey results, one in four physicians think EHRs will actually cause more harm than help in spite of Dr. Blumenthal’s best efforts. I wonder if the escalating bad press about EHRs helped Blumenthal decide to return to his academic position at Harvard. Of course, the controversy over HITECH is nothing new. There have been signs for years that EHRs, including Allscripts products, will neither improve care nor provide taxpayers (our grandchildren) a good value for their investment.
If Tullman was unaware of the highly critical HCPlexus-Reuters study when he assured InformationWeek that his subsidized product has value in the marketplace, he must have been aware of the disappointing news concerning two other recent studies performed by Public Library of Sciences (PLoS) and Stanford which also confirm that EHRs do not improve care. So imagine what it’s like to be one of Tullman’s new, naïve and trusting customers who are expected to use the product for something it’s not designed to do.
My Opinion
It’s my opinion that Tullman’s apparently incorrigible business ethics have no place in the land of the free, and that more transparency in healthcare would help protect the nation from such politically-connected tyrants. Tullman, a long-time Chicago friend of Barack Obama and a Wall Street sweetheart, would still be just another domesticated CEO if it weren’t for the bi-partisan mandate for electronic health records that help Allscripts, Obama and Wall Street more than clueless patients.
Assessment
If you want to seriously cut costs in US healthcare as well as cut our grandchildren’s taxes, demand transparency from not just the doctors and patients, but from stakeholders as well. Protected communications between good ol’ boys in healthcare are hardly diplomatic cables about military secrets and always increase the cost of healthcare.
Conclusion
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Filed under: Information Technology, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: Allscripts, CCHIT, Darrell Pruitt, David Blumenthal, EHRs, electronic medical records, EMRs, Glen Tullman, HIT, HITECH, ONC, WikiLeaks |
Pfc. Bradley Manning Transferred to Army prison
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42668883/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in_security
The WikiLeaks suspect is being moved from a Marine Corps brig amid prisoner abuse accusations.
Rhoda the Journalist
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Financial Tyranny
Visa and Mastercharge can successfully bring Wikileaks to its knees for capricious, in-your-face political reasons, and never be held accountable, will the world’s up and coming financial tyrants prove any more tolerant of dissidence than the average Zimbabwe President?
A stunning on-going article by Steve Ragan titled “Cablegate: Visa and MasterCard face legal problems over WikiLeaks blockade” was posted on TheTechHerald.com today.
http://www.thetechherald.com/
Here is an excerpt:
“In each example, the financial giants revoked access due to something that has never been proven in any court of law. To this day, most of the public and media has ignored the irony:
The moment they revoked financial access to WikiLeaks, these five organizations were starting their own DDoS attack against WikiLeaks.
This DDoS attack impacts the way WikiLeaks can collect donations, and like other forms of DDoS, it denies innocent consumers the ability spend their money as they wish. Given the freedom stripped from consumers, one would think this would be a rather large issue, but its gone ignored for the most part. Perhaps that is because WikiLeaks supporters are in the minority.
The issue is one of financial freedom. The world over, consumers will find it hard to use a debit or credit card issued from a bank without it coming from MasterCard or Visa. Unfortunately, when one signs the customer agreement forms, they agree to abide by the credit card company’s terms. This means if Visa, MasterCard, or banks like BoA, wish to restrict how you can spend your money – as is the case here – they are well within their rights to do so. It is all in the fine print. The question is, do you as a consumer think this is fair?”
Anyone see a need for transparency in more than just the dental industry? Capitalism is consumer-friendly up to the point when latent tyrants feel powerful enough to deprive customers of life, liberty and perfuit of happiness.
Have a happy 4th!
D. Kellus Pruitt
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Is WikiLeaks going broke?
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the site is going broke.
http://specials.msn.com/A-List/News/Is-Wikileaks-broke.aspx?cp-documentid=31128393
Assange says the site will stop publishing documents until it can bypass a donation blockade and find ways to raise funds.
Aloysius
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WikiLeaks to publish security think-tank emails
Apparently, the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks will soon begin publishing more than five million emails from a US-based global security think tank obtained by hackers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46534756
Not broke, yet!
Jorge
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Wikileaks Dumps The Syria Files
http://redir.ientry.com/04-28468-2068709-14193238-0-20
Over 2 Million Emails Leaked
Ahmad
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Julian Assange Granted Asylum To Ecuador [Rumor]
http://redir.ientry.com/04-30707-2071160-14193238-0-22
Jorge
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