Is HI-TECH Dead?

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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[By D. Kellus Pruitt DDS]

Yesterday, Don Fluckinger, Features Writer for SearchhealthIT, posted “Blumenthal: Building national health network could take decades”

“When Dr. David Blumenthal was national health IT coordinator, he focused on 2015, the HITECH Act’s original target date for meeting meaningful use criteria. Now that he’s back in civilian life, he’s taking a longer view of the initiative to create a national health network triggered by the HITECH Act’s cash incentives to physicians and hospitals using electronic health record (EHR) systems.”

http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/news/2240035845/Blumenthal-Building-national-health-network-could-take-decades

Even though Fluckinger assures us that post-ONC, Blumenthal is still a “HITECH Act champion,” I’m not so sure. Perhaps in spirit only!

A Multi-Decade Project?

Last week, Dr. Blumenthal was the keynote speaker at the Massachusetts annual health IT conference. According to Fluckinger, he told the audience that building a secure, national, interoperable health information system “was always going to be a multi-year, maybe even multi-decade project.” That’s not what I remember. I remember being told that if I didn’t purchase a network-ready EHR for my dental practice by 2014, I wouldn’t be paid by insurance companies.

What Happened?

So, what happened to President Bush’s 2004 Executive Order of “interoperability (even with dentists) by 2014”? Is it too soon to say that he failed? So who is going to tell the thousands of HIT stakeholders who have been attracted by the smell of stimulus billions? Blumenthal?

Assessment 

I can only imagine that now that Dr. Blumenthal left his job as head of the ONC for a new job as a health policy professor at Harvard School of Public Health, the openness of life outside government makes him uncomfortable with the lame talking points he once pushed as part of his job, without cracking a smile.

Conclusion

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An Argument for Wikileaks in US Healthcare

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

On Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman

By Darrel K. Pruitt DDS

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

http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/leadership/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=0OLOEMENGCENJQE1GHRSKH4ATMY32JVN?articleID=229201216&pgno=1&queryText=&isPrev=

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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Dr. David Blumenthal Spins “Professionalism”

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

My Take on “Meaningful Use”

D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

Recently, lawmakers complained that the federal criteria for “meaningful use” of eHRs – usage required before providers who risk purchasing electronic health record systems can be reimbursed – aren’t strict enough to justify the billions of dollars in incentive payments that the government promised physicians and hospitals. Matthew DoBias, writing for ModernHealthcare, quoted Rep. Wally Herger (Calif.) – the senior Republican on the Ways and Means Committee’s health subcommittee – who said:

“The new HIT regulations are a step in the right direction and should put Medicare on a path to improved quality and efficiency. However; by watering down the final regulations, we have missed an opportunity to advance healthcare delivery and ensure wise use of taxpayer money.”

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20100721/NEWS/100729995/1153

Rep. Wally Herger

“Improved quality” you say, Rep. Herger? That proves that politicians like Herger will say whatever it takes to get elected, even if it’s transparently misleading. Herger’s confident claim of improved quality of care from using eHRs is typical of Washington even though quality claims are widely disputed in most medical circles. And if eHRs were as efficient as Herger and his campaign donor’s claim, then the billions of dollars in incentive payments that have already been billed to our grandchildren wouldn’t be wasted to bribe physicians to purchase eHR systems that are too lousy to move off the shelves. If HIT stakeholders’ products offered value for Americans in the land of the free, they would sell for natural reasons of consumer demand and wouldn’t require a government mandate and Herger’s deception. Besides, what does any politician know about “wise use of taxpayer money” even outside of the medical field, Mr. Herger?

[picapp align=”none” wrap=”false” link=”term=doctor+computer&iid=107036″ src=”http://view3.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/107036/medical-professional-using/medical-professional-using.jpg?size=500&imageId=107036″ width=”337″ height=”506″ /]

The Criteria

The criteria for meaningful use have been cut down to 15 issues allegedly because demanding all 25 risked improving care and saving money far too ambitiously. Tony Trenkle, director of the Office of E-Health Standards and Services at CMS, puts his special spin to the “watering down” of requirements. He is quoted in an article by Emily Long in NextGov:

“We set the bar where we felt it was appropriate and also signaled for future stages that we would be setting the bar much higher, We’re going along with ways we can modify to reflect real-life experiences we hit once the program begins.”

Why didn’t Trenkle just say, “We at CMS are making this sucker up as we go”?

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100720_9874.php?oref=topnews

Dr. David Blumenthal

Dr. David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health IT, has given up apologizing for bankrupt ideas like the CMS’s criteria for “meaningful use” of electronic health records – as if they made sense. They don’t, and Blumenthal must know that the clicking-for-cash busywork plan he inherited is a waste of time and money. Otherwise, the AMA wouldn’t be complaining.

(See “AMA Weighs in on ‘Meaningful Use’ Requirements For E-Records” – Wall Street Journal Blog)

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/07/21/ama-weighs-in-on-meaningful-use-requirements-for-e-records/  

Surely Dr. Blumenthal recognizes that naive lawmakers like Rep. Wally Herger are foolishly demanding unwanted and dangerous micromanagement of healthcare, not in the interest of patients’ welfare, but for political power. (Do Americans really want Wally Herger from California regulating healthcare?) Rather than attempting to sell systems to doctors based on disingenuous claims of unproven value, Blumenthal chose to punt. All he could offer was a lame appeal to pride: “Much more important than incentives will be a professional sense of obligation,” (Emily Long, NextGov, ibid).

The Oath

Doesn’t the Hippocratic Oath, as well as business survival trump the dangerous nonsense Dr. Blumenthal calls “professional obligations”? As if to emphasize that point, just hours ago, some relevant news was posted concerning the danger of eHRs: “A Massachusetts hospital is under scrutiny after hundreds of thousands of patient and employee records went missing earlier this year. The missing files underscore the problems health care providers face when balancing patient privacy and the need to store massive amounts of data, especially as new federal rules for electronic health records come into play.” (See “Massachusetts Hospital Reports 800,000 Personal Records Missing” by Brian T. Horowitz for eWeek, 7/21/10).

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care-IT/Massachusetts-Hospital-Reports-800000-Personal-Records-Missing-638660/ 

Assessment

How does risking such harm to patients rise to the level of a “professional obligation”? I think Dr. Blumenthal might be confusing professionalism with patriotism. They are both traditional, flexible buzzwords that start with the letter “P” and are often used for just about any bureaucratic chore – even so far as to prove diametrically opposing views.

Conclusion

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Whither Health Information Technology – Seriously?

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Is it Really About Quality Improvement?

By Staff ReportersSurgeons

Health information technology (HIT) allows comprehensive management of medical information and its secure exchange between health care consumers and providers. Broad use of HIT has the potential to improve health care quality, prevent medical errors, increase the efficiency of care provision and reduce unnecessary health care costs, increase administrative efficiencies, decrease paperwork, expand access to affordable care, and improve population health.

Improving Patient Care

  • Interoperable HIT can improve individual patient care in numerous ways, including:
  • Complete, accurate, and searchable health information, available at the point of diagnosis and care, allowing for more informed decision-making to enhance the quality and reliability of health care delivery.
  • More efficient and convenient delivery of care, without having to wait for the exchange of records or paperwork, and without requiring unnecessary or repetitive tests or procedures.
  • Earlier diagnosis and characterization of disease, with the potential to thereby improve outcomes and reduce costs.
  • Reductions in adverse events through an improved understanding of each patient’s particular medical history, potential for drug-drug interactions, or (eventually) enhanced understanding of a patient’s metabolism or even genetic profile and likelihood of a positive or potentially harmful response to a course of treatment.
  • Increased efficiencies related to administrative tasks, allowing for more interaction with and transfer of information to patients, caregivers, and clinical care coordinators and monitoring of patient care.

Assessment

Link: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1327&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=112&mode=2&in_hi_userid=11113&cached=true A Letter from David Blumenthal, MD.

Conclusion

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NCHIT’s Bob Kolodner to Retire

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

National Co-ordinator of Heath IT Exits

By Staff Reportersstk166610rke

According to Government Health IT [HIMSS publication] and Paul McCloskey, Dr. Robert Kolodner, National Coordinator of Heath IT [NCHIT], said he would retire from federal service after a 30-year career during which he led the effort to build a working foundation for national health information sharing.

Enter David Blumenthal, MD

Kolodner will retire once his successor, Dr. David Blumenthal, was ready to take over the office. He will explore a range of opportunities for working in health IT after leaving government.

Assessment

Link: http://govhealthit.com/articles/2009/04/06/kolodner-to-retire-from-federal-government.aspx?s=GHIT_070409

Conclusion

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