Major Health Organization Stops Forcing Doctors To Adopt New Technology (internalmedicinenews.com)

nbauman writes: The administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told an investors' conference that they will be backing off the unpopular requirement that doctors show "meaningful use" of their new computer systems. Andy Slavitt, acting administrator, admitted that "physician burden and frustration levels are real. Programs that are designed to improve often distract. Done poorly, measures are divorced from how physicians practice and add to the cynicism that the people who build these programs just don't get it."

Dr. James L. Madara, CEO of the American Medical Association, agreed that EHRs were having a negative impact on physicians' practices. Many physicians are spending at least two hours each workday using their EHR and may click up to 4,000 times per 8-hour shift, he said. Instead, CMS will reward health care providers for patient outcomes through the merit-based incentive pay systems created by last year's Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) legislation.CMS is calling on the private sector to create apps and analytic tools that will keep data secure while fostering true and widespread interoperability.

Comments

Re:Who knew?

[BitZtream]

Which is the only meaningful way to do it.

All of this bullshit about forcing people to use bad software is just pointless. I only wish more organizations would do this.

I'm sorry, that doesn't mean what you think it means.

What the new 'preferred' way to do it is ... give financial incentive for doctors to have patients using EHR. Which means the doctor forces patients to put their records on the 'web portal' ... which then promptly gets fucking hacked.

So no ... its not actually better. You may think its better because it sounds good, but what they said, what you imagined (and most people), and what was done are 3 entirely different things, and the end result sucks for you and me.

And if I sound pissed off, I am. My 2 year old had his EHR forced onto a portal which was hacked and suddenly the email account I put down for my 2 year old at that office started getting spammed. Took a fucking judge to get them to admit to the issue even happening.

So pardon me, but FUCK ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS. I want all of mine in dead tree format, making them uneconomical to steal. I want it to remain this way for the rest of my life and the lives of all my descendants ... not because I'm a luddite, but because I'm fucking tired of shitty people writing shitty software that gets hacked and doesn't cost them a damn dime, but costs me time and money. Reference: I work on the billing software for a large phone company, I'm aware of the difficulties in getting properly written software to market when security isn't a concern and when it is ... and until there are harsh fines for leaking information regardless of reason, this shit will continue, and I'll continue to want my records in dead tree format.

I haven't even begun to point out that there is exactly 0 interoperability in EHR right now, even within different versions of the same software from the same vendor! If you thought Word compatibility was bad, you've not even begun to imagine the bullshit that is EHR.