The Obama administration’s plan to mandate that doctors and hospitals convert to electronic medical records sounds good. But what about the conversion and maintenance costs — money, time away from patients, someone to manage the system?
This Business Week column by a writer whose sister is a doctor who operates her own practice, illustrates why government regulations are called a hidden tax and should be given the same scrutiny as tax policy and spending plans. As Columnist Gene Marks writes, doctors like his sister “feel like vomiting.”
The plan is that these doctors/small business owners will buy this…stuff… and then get reimbursed by the government for their efforts. And then starting in 2015, government Medicare reimbursements to those terrible souls who choose not to participate in this effort will decline. It’s kind of like an offer they can’t refuse. There will be a health-care czar, too who will have $19 billion of taxpayer money to work with.
So what’s my big sister going to do? “Nothing, until I’m forced to!” she says. Why? Because like all technologies, there’s a lot of slip between the cup and the lip. And there are too many details that need to be figured out. Details that would significantly affect her business.
For example, right now there are dozens and dozens of companies offering technologies that claim to provide electronic health records. And guess what? None of their systems talk to each other. Surprise! And none of them have the same architecture. And they don’t exchange data with all the same hospitals. That’s because most hospitals’ systems are all over the place too. What, you think those big hospitals actually have their act together?
Make no mistake: this mandate will cost medical professionals dearly and provide a disincentive for keeping or starting a small practice where doctors can develop a relationship with their patients. Once again, consumers lose when central planners think they know better than business owners how best to operate a business and when/what decisions to make.
