Friday, January 11, 2013

Gray Lady Joke of the Day: EHR D'unh!

From Nate's post last Fall:

"[I]n reality, the move to electronic health records may be contributing to billions of dollars in higher costs for Medicare, private insurers and patients by making it easier for hospitals and physicians to bill more for their services, whether or not they provide additional care."

And from yesterday's New York Times:

"The conversion to electronic health records has failed so far to produce the hoped-for savings in health care costs"

Nice that the Gray Lady is finally catching up to us.

ADDENDUM: As Mike points out in the comments, he made the EHR cost/benefit connection in the Fall of 2011:

"Last week the UK announced that it will scrap its 9-year-old Information Technology (IT) project intended to digitize all National Health Service patient records and link all parts of the enormous NHS together ... Perhaps more important is the global impact on thinking about health IT. For example US policymakers hope that IT will save scads, tons, bundles, oodles of money in the delivery of medical care."

The key (but inoperative) word being "hope."

RELATED: From the Dayton Daily News this morning:

"Health insurance premiums are rising this year for many Ohioans, and some pretty much everyone  will see larger double-digit percent increases than they’ve seen before"

Fixed that for ya, DDN.

[Hat Tip: FoIB Holly R]
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