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An ME-P Exclusive – Almost

By D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

I really, really love being provocative in my neighborhood that I know so well. It just doesn’t seem fair. In fact, for five years, I’ve watched the electronic dental record [eDR] market very closely, and I tell you, something big is moving under the radar. If you recall, in the last couple of weeks I brought your attention to unexplained interest blips appearing on the Medical Executive-Post www.MedicalExecutivePost.com concerning eDRs. I suggested that Internet interest in the topic following years of silence from even the ADA, could be a sign that important news about electronic health records in dentistry may be breaking soon.

CCHIT Seeking Comments 

Just a couple of hours ago, Andis Robeznieks posted “CCHIT seeks comments on specialized EHRs” on ModernHealthcare.com.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20101119/NEWS/311199996/#

Robeznieks writes: “The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology has opened a public comment period for its proposed oncology and women’s-health electronic health-record certification criteria and test scripts. The comment period will end December 10th at 5 pm CT.”

Meaningful Dental Use 

Is it possible that following the establishment of “meaningful use” guidelines for these specialists, dentistry could be next in line? The nature of the approaching bolus of news concerning eDRs is pure speculation, but rest assured I’ll be right in the middle of it – which brings me to the next sign that eDR stakeholders are getting restless: An almost unheard of conversation about eDRs appeared today on the Internet. Since the only news about eDRs on the Internet are press releases from Dentrix – the largest vendor in the nation – conversations about value of electronic dental records only rarely break out. But, when they appear, I always try my best to be provocative – just to tease out new rationalizations I might have otherwise missed.

I think I found promising opportunity this morning following an article by “John” titled, “EMR Stimulus Q and A: EMR Stimulus Money and Dentists.” It was posted yesterday on the EMR and HIPAA blog.

http://www.emrandhipaa.com/emr-and-hipaa/2010/11/18/emr-stimulus-q-and-a-emr-stimulus-money-and-dentists/comment-page-1/#comment-126257

My Comments

I’ve looked into whether stimulus money will be available to dentists. Many in your audience won’t like it, but here’s your answer: 

Dentists will not receive any ARRA stimulus to help pay for electronic dental records – even if a practice is 30% Medicaid as required. For one thing, it’s already too late to collect on the biggest portion of our grandchildren’s money unless the practice can prove utilization of an ONC-certified eDR in a “meaningful” way by this time next year. And, that’s simply impossible because there are no ONC-certified eDRs, and meaningful use has still not been defined by HHS – with help from the ADA. Eventually, someone from the ADA will either have to promote computer busywork as meaningful use, or concede that meaningful use of eHRs in dentistry simply does not exist.

Example

For example, do you want to log on to a password-protected, HIPAA-compliant computer just to notify the lab that you have a pick-up? For dental practices, speed-dial on the telephone – or fax machine – is much more meaningful, and neither requires the dentist to be a HIPAA-covered entity. In addition, none of the conventional ways of communicating put patients’ identities at risk like digital records on a stolen or hacked computer. That’s Hippocratic meaningful.

Digital Drawbacks 

Here’s another drawback to digitalization: Even though electronic dental records are cutting-edge cool, they have yet to show a return on investment for dental practices, and data breaches will continue to make them more and more expensive. Without ROI, paperless is a hobby paid for by clueless patients in higher fees. Bet you haven’t heard that chunk of honesty very often. Honesty about hi-tech non-solutions is repressed even in the ADA because it is so politically incorrect to admit that our dental leaders who misled members were misled themselves by HIT stakeholders and Newt Gingrich. It’s really difficult for high officials inside and outside dentistry to stand up and say, “Oops! We were wrong.”

See: “Is ARRA Stimulus Money for Dentists?”

https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2010/11/16/is-arra-stimulus-money-for-dentists/

Assessment

I happened to post the article on the Medical Executive-Post two days before John’s article was posted here on the EMR and HIPAA forum. I invite you to read it, and tell me what you think. Other than here, nobody talks about these issues. That can’t be good for dental patients.

Conclusion

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Filed under: Information Technology, Op-Editorials, Practice Management, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: ADA, ARRA, CCHIT, Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, Darrell Pruitt, dental meaningful use, eDRs, HIPPA, ONC | 12 Comments »