$5.7 Billion in Taxpayer Money Spent So Far to Encourage Use of Electronic Health Records

story from CNS News
By Susan Jones
June 19, 2012

$5.7 Billion in Taxpayer Money Spent So Far to Encourage Use of Electronic Health Records
This must be one devil of a database for $5.7 Billion !!

Lots of big money being picked over by contractors I bet.

I wonder what happens when a convenient "mistake" shows up ?
I wonder how many flaws exist already ?

I wonder how many giant healthcare corporations can "access" Your private information now ?

(not to mention the government agencies who just might be a little nosy or "curious" once in a while !)

Apparently this is not an ObamaCare deal.

(CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration has paid more than $5.7 billion in the past year to health professionals to encourage the use of electronic health records, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on Tuesday.

As of the end of May, more than 110,000 health care providers and 2,400 hospitals had been paid to use the new technology through an incentive program established by the HITECH section of the stimulus law, which President Obama signed in 2009.

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, which began in 2011, pays eligible professionals and hospitals to adopt, implement, upgrade, or "meaningfully use" certified EHR technology in ways that improve care. Eligible professionals include physicians, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and some physician assistants.

here we go

The Democrats' law called for doctors’ offices and other medical providers to utilize an electronic health record (EHR) "for each person in the United States by 2014." Theoretically, EHRs will lower health care costs by reducing paperwork, administrative burdens and medical errors.

I wonder who really got "stimulated" ?

5.7 billion could be spent on soooo many better and worthwhile, effective things. I hate this type of blatant waste of funds when people are starving among other needs!!

Nice find...It will take alot of money to get everyone switched over to filing electronic insurance claims in the medical field as well as in dentistry.

I worked for a company 2 years ago that was and still is offtering the service that gives them the ability for Dentists and Doctors to send electronic records over a secure interent connection. Hippa laws apply to all involved. Break the Hippa law have fun paying the fine....lol

Mostly Dentist were setup 1st because the practice management software being used by the dentist were setup as well as the insurance companies to handle receiving and processing of these electronic files.
Not to mention getting the dentist offices trained to used the electronic process to file the claim. The mostly women in these dentist offices have been doing it the old way for so long they don't like change and some would make it as hard as possible to get them to use it...lol

Michigan passed a law that all dental records needs to file insurance claims has to be done electronically so those people had no choice. They had to change to electronic insurance claim filing.

The medical field is alittle different....They were coming on board but they send way more records and have way more people to be trained. Not to mention the company I worked for lobby congress to get the right to send electronic records.

One of the things I found interesting in this company was the President. He came from Chicago before coming to Atlanta. He also was involved in the beginning of WebMD....I don't like or trust this man either. Very strick and hard person to work for. I also felt he treated his employees unfairly. At the time I liked the process but didn't like the people.

Thats exactly why if the grid goes down and we keep relying on computers....we are screwed.
Conspiracy or just plain human stupidity??

Thats also the reason I don't use plastic and only cash.

The last time we had a blackout....i was fine and everyone else had no cash to take care of their needs.

The world is dumb and relying on computers for everything,even a compass gets overlooked because we now have GPS.

Thats another story though and this post is a minor rant.

i have had electronic health records for 10 years now and can walk into any VA hospital and they can pull up my record in minutes.
i can go on the internet and see my records and lab test.

then i can research and find things they missed and ask for lab test.

and to think I couldn't get a measly 5 million to actually build a access portal. geez - you see the problem with the web is you really dont have a place ... your stuff is everywhere. I proposed an access portal that would allow you to control everything. and it would also be a life manager - as it would assist you - It's ROTO for Relational Operating Terminal Object - it's basically Cloudware, program that the world interfaces with. financial, medical, educational, socital - everything .... and the really cool stuff like allows you to roll back in time and will have an accurate record of everything when you pass - for the family tree. it has two sides - John Q. Public and JOHN Q. PUBLIC so it will plug right in with the current systems.
(if you don't have a clue to what I'm talking about ?) its OK - I'm about 10 years into the future. when you check your mail.... notice how your name is spelled on the different types of mail you receive.... the up and down characters is a living human being.... the all Capitals is your acceptance to the Matrix Corporate You. if you notice they always get you to accept the Matrix you as you. when in reality its a Corporation You totally artifical representation of you. And you can deny that the Corporate You, represents you - it doesn''t. unless you accept it. like a cop gives you a ticket - its made out to the real you but the summons arrives as the Corporate You, they have no control other than Force DeJure to make you accept it as you. but it keeps the books balanced at the treasury.

Well, one thing's for sure: There's no longer such a thing as "Doctor/Patient privacy".

Hmmmn, let's see how many ways this can be misused? (Since, ANYTIME our information is put into internet form, our secure information has been used for reasons that were not included in the initial relationship. For instance, our information is bought and sold, hackers illegal infiltrate and nab our account info, etc and etc). In the near future, we can expect:

1. To have our medical information reviewed prior to our being hired at a company. (They'll now be able to surmise whether we are a good investment based on the history of our mental or physical health)
2. To determine whether we should be given an expensive medical procedure.
3. Whether we should be placed on the organ donor wait-list.
4. If our organs are healthy for donating to those on the donor wait-list. To help determine whether we should be 'revived' or simply let go.
5. Whether our history shows any reason we can be turned down for scholarships, grants, loans, etc.
6. To determine if we can/should be included in any class action lawsuit (for instance, to determine if anything else in our medical history may or could play a role in our injuries or what ever reason to prove we are not privy to sue for anything that may have harmed us in some form)
7. Whether we are fit mentally or physically to be parents.
8. To determine how much we should be required to pay for our insurance premiums/deductions/co-pays.
9. Whether we should hold office (anything to show we may have a bad 'ticker')
10. Deny pain management, since bureaucrats know better than our own personal physician, just how much pain we are in.
11. Insurance companies to deny paying for something that may be related to something that could have occurred at an earlier time. (Not to be mistaken for a preexisting condition, more like an automobile accident or similar)

I'm sure there are many, many ways this could turn out very bad for us. I just can not think of any sort of benefit of having my medical records online (secured or not) that outweigh any one of the negative possibilities.

And, I absolutely HATE the fact that I was not consulted about this, nor do I have a choice.

I have a choice whether to use a business, a bank, a website, based on what they do with my personal information. I can still even file taxes by paper and snail mail. But, whether I consent or not, I have to comply with having my personal information out on cyber-world for any and all to use (if they have the right hacker or enough $$).

Nothing whatsoever can keep me from being in this new system. Nothing short of giving up my citizenship (but then, they'd still have a file on me) will keep me out of this forced compliance.

While I may not be able to do anything about my historical records being entered into the system, I may be able to circumvent any future entries. By finding a good underground family physician.

The black market medical, dental, and pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. is about to blow up. Cash healthcare is about to be the new private healthcare sector.

reply to post by xuenchen


Arron Russo said one of the rockafellas told him they (him and his cohorts) wanted all medical records to be electronised so they can make people dissapear with confidence.

When they want to 'dissapear' someone, the only thing they can never be certain of is that the person may have visisted a doctor somewhere they don't know about so there is always a risk they cant make a person completely dissappear.

When our goverment was elected, the first two things the newly elected prim minister said was that the US would build a military base in northern Australia which 'we would know about' and that all medical records will be electronicised and this is now being done, so there you go.