President Obama at the AMA today

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Excellent idea on EHR, but will the medical community comprising millions of physicians be willing to change years of practice and the traditional 'way of doing things' to switch over to computerized system?. The administration will have to provide some huge incentives to physicians to encourage them to jump on to new systems.

Very idealistic. Sure we must all eat healthy and stay away from junk food, but how is the administration going to implement such ideas in our individualistic society which in love with the idea of Freedom for ....everything.
 
NeuroChaos said:
Very idealistic. Sure we must all eat healthy and stay away from junk food, but how is the administration going to implement such ideas in our individualistic society which in love with the idea of Freedom for ....everything.
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I agree with the idealism, but sometimes big problems have simple solutions. A good first step would be to actually build grocery stores with fresh produce in urban centers and segregated communities.
 
Let's require a 5 minute treadmill run before anyone can enter a fast food joint.
 
Poor AMA, is in a sticky situation. In one case, they don't want government-backed health insurance plan, which means they need to fight against the Obama administration and the Democrats. On the other hand, AMA can't alienate the Democrats too much, as it needs congressional support to increase Medicare fees.
As for me, I have issues with Obama's plan to cut $200 billion in reimbursements to hospitals, this is going to create problems for many hospitals. And I fear a public health plan could eventually become a death knell to private insurers, despite Obama's assurance that it will not.
 
koko_eats said:
I agree with the idealism, but sometimes big problems have simple solutions. A good first step would be to actually build grocery stores with fresh produce in urban centers and segregated communities.
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Produce that isn't so expensive would be pretty helpful, if possible. A 99 cent cheese burger looks a lot better than 4.99 lettuce.
 
LastPolarBear said:
Produce that isn't so expensive would be pretty helpful, if possible. A 99 cent cheese burger looks a lot better than 4.99 lettuce.
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I agree, but access is always the first step. You might be surprised by how many people I know who buy fruits and vegetables for the first time during college simply because they have the access. I've seen people make the right choice over and over again when given the opportunity to buy a $2 mango a block farther away than the $0.99 cheeseburger.
 
LastPolarBear said:
Produce that isn't so expensive would be pretty helpful, if possible. A 99 cent cheese burger looks a lot better than 4.99 lettuce.
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I wish this was true for me...I live across the street from a mcdonalds and down the street from numerous grocery stores, including super notorious organic hippie places.

...the .99 cheese burger takes precedence over the 4.99 head of lettuce that will provide 1 salad then go bad before you can eat the rest.
 
I don't understand Obama's problem with tort caps. There's no reason to declare that somebody's "pain and suffering" is worth millions of dollars at the expense of the rest of society. You can't legitimately limit the amounts on actual damages, but pain and suffering is not something you can convert into dollar amounts anyway.

I also don't understand why people think that a single-tier system would force them to change doctors. That seems to be more an issue with HMOs and PPOs whenever we change private insurance, which we currently struggle with.

Finally, I'm not sure about this government option idea. If somebody likes their insurance plan, and the government option is covered in part by income taxes, then aren't they just paying twice? They might as well switch to the government for primary insurance, and then get a new private supplemental plan if they find the government insurance inadequate by itself. I know some countries with highly-rated healthcare systems have two-tier, such as France. But what jurisdiction has tried this government option idea and what makes Obama think it would work better than two-tier?

NeuroChaos said:
Excellent idea on EHR, but will the medical community comprising millions of physicians be willing to change years of practice and the traditional 'way of doing things' to switch over to computerized system?. The administration will have to provide some huge incentives to physicians to encourage them to jump on to new systems.
Click to expand...

There were tens of billions in the stimulus package to help hospitals make the transition to medical informatics/EMR. Aside from that, it's a bit of an investment but it should be worth it in the long-run. They can help reduce the duplication of tests and errors in Rx. I guess I can understand why some healthcare admins might want to delay getting into it as it's a bit of a work in progress. The interfaces could still use some improvement.
 
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NeuroChaos said:
Excellent idea on EHR, but will the medical community comprising millions of physicians be willing to change years of practice and the traditional 'way of doing things' to switch over to computerized system?. The administration will have to provide some huge incentives to physicians to encourage them to jump on to new systems.

Very idealistic. Sure we must all eat healthy and stay away from junk food, but how is the administration going to implement such ideas in our individualistic society which in love with the idea of Freedom for ....everything.
Click to expand...

Many large healthcare delivery systems already have adopted or are in the process of adopting EMRs. People always sound the alarm when new tech is implemented about how the old way of doing things was better, people won't be able to adjust, etc. "Oh Noez"

But I think for our new generation of soon-to-be physicians, adopting EMRs, etc. will be quite natural and relatively easy. When I worked at the hospital, I was trained in on Epic and never dealt with paper charts. It was easy and I can not imagine putzing about with paper now.

Within a couple of generations, no one will even bat an eyelash about EMRs. It just makes so much more sense. Standardization is the way to go. EMRs will standardize data collected, streamline the transmission of the data, and facilitate every step of the process for both patient and physician. It's only a matter of time, and the only Q is how soon this all will get implemented.

Wanting the "freedom" to have a paper chart is an "issue" that's a non-issue, imo.

I suppose in the past, people preferred to hand write letters as well. Nowadays, e-mail makes the world go round. There's no way around it. Sure, there are still a minority of people who don't know how to work computers that well or send e-mails. But anyone working in a professional capacity is typically required to have those skills.

I believe for a healthcare professional using EMR will simply become one of those essential skills. If it's simply a matter of time, I'm glad the gov't is trying to accelerate the natural (and inevitable) process. I don't think that's idealistic at all. It's fairly realistic, imo.
 
NeuroChaos said:
Excellent idea on EHR, but will the medical community comprising millions of physicians be willing to change years of practice and the traditional 'way of doing things' to switch over to computerized system?. The administration will have to provide some huge incentives to physicians to encourage them to jump on to new systems.

Very idealistic. Sure we must all eat healthy and stay away from junk food, but how is the administration going to implement such ideas in our individualistic society which in love with the idea of Freedom for ....everything.
Click to expand...

Many large healthcare delivery systems already have adopted or are in the process of adopting EMRs. People always sound the alarm when new tech is implemented about how the old way of doing things was better, people won't be able to adjust, etc. "Oh Noez"

But I think for our new generation of soon-to-be physicians, adopting EMRs, etc. will be quite natural and relatively easy. When I worked at the hospital, I was trained in on Epic and never dealt with paper charts. It was easy and I can not imagine putzing about with paper now.

Within a couple of generations, no one will even bat an eyelash about EMRs. It just makes so much more sense. Standardization is the way to go. EMRs will standardize data collected, streamline the transmission of the data, and facilitate every step of the process for both patient and physician. It's only a matter of time, and the only Q is how soon this all will get implemented.

Wanting the "freedom" to have a paper chart is an "issue" that's a non-issue, imo.

I suppose in the past, people preferred to hand write letters as well. Nowadays, e-mail makes the world go round. There's no way around it. Sure, there are still a minority of people who don't know how to work computers that well or send e-mails. But anyone working in a professional capacity is typically required to have those skills.

I believe for a healthcare professional using EMR will simply become one of those essential skills. If it's simply a matter of time, I'm glad the gov't is trying to accelerate the natural (and inevitable) process. I don't think that's idealistic at all. It's fairly realistic, imo.
 
EMR is a must and will happen. He was treading softly but I suspect his key to reducing the cost of medical care will be to cut reimbursement to physicians, which is a horrendous idea. Something will suffer whenever you make it cheaper and quality will probably be it. Honestly, there is a reason healthcare is expensive....its a valuable thing. All the research and cutting edge stuff is expensive.
 
BlueElmo said:
So doctors can get paid more, and not get paid lowly Medicare-rates.
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Are Medicare reimbursements really lower than private insurers'? As I understand/ood it, private insurers set their rates to what Medicare's are.
 
YouAreAwesome said:
Are Medicare reimbursements really lower than private insurers'? As I understand/ood it, private insurers set their rates to what Medicare's are.
Click to expand...

Private insurers set their rates based on what medicare pays. They do pay a higher rate, but it is based on a multiple of the medicare rate.
 
YouAreAwesome said:
Are Medicare reimbursements really lower than private insurers'? As I understand/ood it, private insurers set their rates to what Medicare's are.
Click to expand...

I've read Medicare pays roughly 80% of what private insurers pay.
 
DrYoda said:
Private insurers set their rates based on what medicare pays. They do pay a higher rate, but it is based on a multiple of the medicare rate.
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DING DING DING!... Thank you....Medicare/Medicaid is one of the most detrimental systems to healthcare as a whole. Medicare/Medicaid artificially manipulates the reimbursement rates, causing other insurers to lower their reimbursement rates, why should they pay more when Uncle Sam is getting a better deal, right? This hurts the quality of medical care by causing doctors to see twice as many patients just to maintain their salaries. Less time is spent with each patient, and doctors are inundated with cases and paperwork. Medicare/Medicaid amounts to a "price fixing" on procedures, which stifels any degree of a free market within healthcare, doctors and hospitals dont have to compete for business if there is a relatively stagnet rate being paid out all over the place. The patient loses, the doctor loses, and the hospital loses.
 
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