Shopping for Health Software

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Some Doctors Get Buyer’s Remorse

By D. Kellus Pruitt; DDS

Dear Huffington Post Investigative Fund

As a dentist, I read Emma Schwartz’s “Shopping for Health Software, Some Doctors Get Buyer’s Remorse” with interest.

It was like watching a slow, grinding train wreck from a still safe, but shrinking distance.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/shopping-for-health-softw_n_442651.html

Duped Physicians 

The numerous stories about physicians who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because of bad software purchases – including the case where some doctors alleged they were locked out of their patients’ medical records – is awe inspiring if one isn’t mandated to live the misery. I hope it’s a long, long time before paper dental practices are outlawed. If as Ms. Schwartz describes, broad-band interoperability fails to save money for physicians where it makes sense, I promise that dentists will never invest in interoperability beyond occasionally purchasing a new fax machine, telephone, or postage stamps. Dentistry simply isn’t emergency room medicine, and non-productive technology is especially costly if it fails to function properly.

A Volatile Industry 

Steven Lazarus, president of consulting company Boundary Information Group, was quoted:

 “This is a very volatile industry. Any product doctors buy could be bought or changed within two years.”

You want to see volatile? Try explaining that to thousands of disappointed dentists in solo practices – one disagreeable SOB at a time.

A Canadian Illustration 

Believe it or not, there’s still more kinetic energy behind the train wreck – even without mentioning data breach bankruptcies. As illustrated by Schwartz’s example of Canada-based MedcomSoft, even if a company’s EHR system is CCHIT-certified, bankruptcy can occur unexpectedly – again leaving doctors holding the bag. To stay in business, providers who lose money on EHRs either must cut corners or increase fees to cover the loss … volatile!

A Dentist’s Question 

Why, oh why, would a dentist want to spend $40,000 on software including thousands of man-hours in transition, just to risk pulling this tangled, expensive mess down on top of one’s practice? And – for what? There is no return on investment beyond the stakeholders in the EHR industry – which is ultimately paid by unrepresented patients through their healthcare in higher medical fees. As one can imagine, dentists are staying away from EHRs in droves.

For example, what does it mean that there are few if any advertisements for electronic dental records in industry journals, junk mail ads or Internet venues? I think it means that the Father of Economics Adam Smith is quietly warning ambitious, would-be dental software salespeople that their dangerous and expensive products will get them thrown out of dental offices.

The ADA 

But then again, I could be wrong. Here is what Dr. John Findley, the immediate past president of the American Dental Association, told ADA Reporter Judy Jakush in a September 2008 interview a month before taking office:

“The electronic health record may not be the result of changes of our choice. They are going to be mandated. No one is going to ask, ‘Do you want to do this?’ No, it’s going to be, ‘You have to do this.’ That’s why we absolutely need the profession to be represented in the discussions about EHR to make sure our ideas are enacted to the greatest extent possible.”

To me, that’s scary. It smells a lot like tyranny.

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Don’t Tread on Me – Obama

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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Bite Me – CMS

[By D. Kellus Pruitt; DDS]pruitt

Shy but proud Texas Dental Association leaders still direct employees to encourage members to volunteer for permanent, mandated National Provider Identifier numbers. Why? “Just ‘cause.”

As part of an agreement the TDA made with the state to help politicians out of a lawsuit they brought upon themselves for not providing adequate dental care for the poor in the state, TDA leaders followed someone’s bad advice to encourage Texas dentists to accept CHIP (Medicaid) – which requires dentists to have arbitrary 10 digit NPI numbers to participate.

Don’t get me wrong. I have the highest respect for dentists who treat the poor for pay that doesn’t even cover overhead. That is compassion to a fault – even before CMS investigators arrive with subpoenas based on vague, nuisance complaints from disappointed patients, disgruntled employees and hungry competitors. Getting even with rich, greedy, or otherwise mouthy dentists has never been easier because I’ve heard that CMS intends to investigate all complaints.

Yes, low pay is only part of the nasty package that TDA officials are officially discouraged from discussing with membership – even as they beg for us to sign up for CHIP and “do our part to return our debt to society by helping those who cannot care for themselves.” So who would dare question the reason for the faux sentiment expressed by a long string of TDA Presidents? That would be me.

There are simply so many other charitable ways of publicly and privately returning help to the community that don’t add to the risk of donating one’s skill. Even if one does not help local free clinics, how hard can it be to quietly give away care, Doc, in these hard times? It’s just between you and God anyway, isn’t it? One simply enters N/C in the fee column. Confidentially I sometimes get hugs that so far can be neither controlled nor taxed.

It appears to me that CMS is arguably more influential with TDA leaders than common TDA members like me. If I am correct, this means that dentistry is at risk of being overrun by authoritarian bureaucrats hired by ambitious politicians who often promise more than they can deliver before ducking accountability for earthly bad decisions. The business model even reminds me of the TDA’s.

So now that the TDA played its hand with regard to its fondness for BCBSTX and the NPI number, what does it mean for Texas dentists if Obama’s imminent “Public Plan Option” turns into “Medicaid for All” – as some naively hope and others justifiably fear? This week, the AMA gave its support to the Public Option. Will the ADA be next? 

Dentistry unhurried is value-added service. One cannot get rich at it, but it’s an honorable living.

Regardless of whether you approve of my tactless vitriol or not, I have to say that when it comes down to feeding my family, even this special bastard could be silenced if there is no longer a market on the east side of Fort Worth for dentistry unhurried. Especially if it meant a monthly visit by CMS inspectors like Dr. Annie Bukacek is going through right now. Like me, she also gives her patients the time they deserve. But unlike me, she doesn’t have time to pick fights with shy bullies who hide behind employees.

I’ll get to the physician’s story in a moment. But first, just how important are secrets to the leaders of the nation’s preeminent non-profit dental organization? It’s important enough that many in the ADA House of Delegates want the power to mete out punishment to fellow officers who cannot keep their mouths shut. Some of those we elected even want to make the sanctions retroactive to deal with colleagues who have already broken the traditional unwritten good ol’ boy code of stoic conduct. At the same time, the TDA is begging dentists in the state to run for ADA office – starting on the local level. Why do you think dentists in Texas don’t want to get involved? Nobody accepts delivery from the cluetrain in Austin. It probably stops there at least a couple of times each week day.

I copied below three of the ADA Delegates’ referred resolutions from Judy Jakush’s November 2 ADANews article, “Delegates vote on Association business matters,”

http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=3821

1] Res. 70 states that if any member of the ADA, including delegation member, council, committee or task force member, or Board of Trustees member has been acknowledged as breaking the attorney-client privilege or executive session, that member is, at a minimum, barred from ever again participating in an attorney-client or executive session within the ADA. This shall include such acts which have been acknowledged as occurring prior to the enactment of this resolution.

2] Res. 67 would specify that candidates for elective or appointive officers may not have had any sanctions bestowed upon them by the Association. Also referred was Res. 67RC, which would direct that anyone found by the Committee on Credentials, Rules and Order to have violated his or her duties to the Association would be disqualified from holding elective or appointive office.

3] Res. 68 was referred to the Council on Ethics, Bylaws and Judicial Affairs for report to the 2010 House with recommendations for Bylaws changes. The proposal calls for CEBJA to review the Bylaws and craft language that would define the mechanism for sanctions up to and including removal from office of a delegation member or Board of Trustee member if there is found to be cause for removal as shall be defined. That cause, at a minimum, should include those causes as delineated currently for council members. Res. 68 also calls for a method for fair and impartial hearings to be recommended and the establishment of an authorized House committee that can be held on an ad interim basis between annual sessions of the House of Delegates with authority to determine and impose any such sanctions deemed appropriate. 

Remember, the ADA is a non-profit, professional organization whose only purpose for existence is to serve dental patients through dentist members who support it with dues. When one reads these and other resolutions in Jakush’s article, it looks like ADA President Dr. Ron Tankersley is running the Pentagon. We’re only dentists for crying out loud!

Dr. Annie Bukacek’s 6-month battle with CMS

This morning I read what has turned out to be a popular article titled “Investigators descend on doctor,” written by Candace Chase, writing for the Daily Inter Lake which serves northwest Montana.

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_d8cde54e-cc2d-11de-9ddd-001cc4c03286.html

“Dr. Annie Bukacek of Hosanna Health Care in Kalispell was surprised when a 30- to 40-foot-long command-post vehicle pulled up unannounced last week, along with a posse of state and federal health-care fraud investigators.”

“Bukacek points out that anyone – a disgruntled ex-employee or patient or someone who doesn’t like a physician’s looks or politics – could trigger an investigation and cost a physician as well as the government thousands of dollars.” 

I wonder what would happen if a dentist openly taunts CMS leaders? As I previously mentioned, it is Dr. Bukacek who claims, “They said they have to followup every allegation made.” 

When all American dentists are required to volunteer for NPI numbers and can no longer be legally paid in cash at the time of service, we’ll all be hung by an ADA-approved mistake of historic proportions. I suggest that ADA members take time right now to jot down names so that when judgment day inevitably arrives, one will be prepared to hold accountable the ADA employees who recommended the numbers. After reading how ADA leaders are hunkering down, it looks like going through employees will probably be the only way to touch the bosses they bravely try to shield.

Oh yeah. I posted the 5th of almost 30 comments that so far follow Candace Chase’s provocative article:

“Dr. Annie Bukacek’s experience is why as a US citizen in the land of the free, I simply refuse to do business with the US government. Bite me, CMS. Did you hear me? I said bite me!”

Assessment

It’s not likely that I’ll regret those words because I am powerless to stop myself from typing them anyway.

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