Opinion

Stepping aside the HIPAA 5010 and ICD-10 realm here, a question for you: ONC's Federal Health IT Strategic Plan ... realistic in a reasonable time frame or overly ambitious?

As usual, I'd be much obliged for any insights.

Tom Sullivan

Well Tom, this may be a stretch for my expertise, but never let it be said I don't have an opinion on anything <smile>.

May 6th 2011

ONC Seeks Public Comment on the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011-2015

http://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/from-the-onc-desk/hit-strat-plan/

As with any large Government program it is doomed to failure. Outside of our wonderful Military, when has the Federal Government ever done anything well, efficiently, on-time or even close to the original budget? Love to hear an example! This is just another case of bureaucratic obfuscation that attempts to deal with a hopelessly flawed, corrupt and insanely expensive 'healthcare system' that hasn't really ever worked.

The purported purpose of this whole 'system' is to enhance the health and welfare of American Citizens; not send them to the poor house! It was supposed to 'cure' disease and provide for a better quality of life. I don't recall any cures at all. Lots of treatments of symptoms, but nary a cure for much of anything. Lots of drugs, pills, machines, cutting & splicing, with a bit of radiation and other invasive procedures, but no cures that I know of.

Even Jerry Lewis can't seem to cure Muscular Dystrophy and he sure has tried! Nixon tried to 'cure' cancer in 7 years, but that was over 20 years and many Billion$ of dollars later! We are a sicker Country for all the money spent and yet, the establishment of bureaucrats continue on the same path. Treating symptoms and not attacking the cause of the disease.

What about the dramatic increase in Diabetes 2, Cancer, Heart Disease, Obesity and a host of 'modern' ailments that the Third World countries, without much healthcare, don't seem to suffer from UNTIL they start emulating the Standard American Diet (SAD). Ever think of that?

Check any statistical correlated profile of the above diseases and plot the incidence of processed foods, fast foods, junk foods, high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified foods (animal and vegetable), proliferation of huge agribusiness, huge pharmaceutical and chemical (fertilizer, insecticides, weed killers). Don't forget the huge farm subsidies to these same organizations (our tax dollar$ at work?).

Then consider the huge advertising budgets, donations to medical institutions, colleges, charitable organizations these huge multinational conglomerates 'donate' every year. Oh, don't forget the monies to political campaigns, and paid lobbyists.

Did I mention insurance yet? These guys in the Medicare, individual and other 'medical insurance' programs are as bad as the federal bureaucrats. The amount that is charged for simple lab work (blood tests) is so messed up. I recently 'tested' the system by going to an independent on-line laboratory test center and ordered a simple CBC. It only cost me $85 dollars TOTAL and I went to the SAME laboratory for the blood draw I have always done when the orders came from my 'doctor'. Those tests cost around $650 plus the cost of office visits (co-pay); one for the test order and another visit to pick up the results! (not to mention the time, gas and effort to sit/wait to see the darn doctor).

Now the government thinks that mandatory application of Information Technology can help fix a system that is so totally in disarray, mismanaged and misdirected it can hardly find the bathroom much less organize and manage to fix these corrupt and disarrayed institutions.

The root CURE for many diseases (previously mentioned) is mainly Nutritional in nature! There is a new movie coming out this week (unfortunately not to be shown in Central Florida yet), called Forks over Knives and is a devastating documentary dealing with the issues I have mentioned! Hope you can see it, one day soon.

In any case these wonderful Information Technology goals may indeed help reduce the cost of transactional processing, increase accuracy in recording, analyzing and reporting and may actually help patients somewhere down the line; can't imagine where, but I'll give it the possibility.

Like with any organization, it is the quality and direction that the management team provides to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. Oftentimes, this is to just achieve a profit; nothing wrong with that if there is not individual liberty or harm to the individual done. That is a hard one to assess.

With the 'Healthcare System' that these rules and regulations purport to support in such a mess, it is doubtful that any amount of technology will fix the inherent issues of corruption, organizational disarray, mismanagement of funds and just poor direction that we have today.

Until there is a dramatic change of direction there will be no improvement; no matter how much the bureaucrats moan, complain and preach. The ONC Plans are laudable, but unobtainable in today’s environment of politics, bureaucratic bumbling and interference by vested interests (drug, insurance, chemical, pharmaceutical) and the related industries that have grown dependent on these misdirected, mismanaged and totally out of control institutions.

You asked for it. Now you can just hit the 'delete' key if you haven't already <smile>.

Cheers,

Skip Stein

Management Systems Consulting, Inc.

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Last modified: 01/10/2012