Told You So

Some nine years ago when we started this process I noted that the Electronic Health Record, as proposed by the previous administration, would be a disaster. First it was designed by an academic, second it was driven by the Government, and third it was provider specific rather that patient specific.

Now comes JAMA and the Harvard Gazette who states:

Electronic health record systems doesn’t reduce costs for bill processing. In fact, a study finds that it leaves primary care services with an average $100,000 tab per provider.

 Providers now have to hire scribes to record the EHR content. Each provider does not interconnect with others. For example in New York Presbyterian, a fairly decent provider, I have an ophthalmologist at Weill Cornell and a urologist at Columbia. The systems do not interconnect and they are on different platforms. Not that urology and ophthalmology need to connect, not even I can find a nexus, but there are many areas that demand a connection.

JAMA concludes:

In a time-driven activity-based costing study in a large academic health care system with a certified EHR system, the estimated costs of billing and insurance-related activities ranged from $20 for a primary care visit to $215 for an inpatient surgical procedure. Knowledge of how specific billing and insurance-related activities contribute to administrative costs may help inform policy solutions to reduce these expenses.

 Overall this was a multi billion dollar expense, and its net result is more cost, reduced care, and increased overhead! Welcome to Government!