Reuters is reporting that
Bush is offering a plan to improve the administration of healthcare. Its goals include reducing paperwork costs and cutting down on medical errors. The magic in this innovative new approach?
....C O M P U T E R S ! ! !
Its about time somebody found something to use those things for.
Needless to say, there are already numerous, for-profit enterprises engaged in enhancing the efficiency and productivity of doctors and hospitals and their relationship with pharmacies and patients. I think they even use computers.
Pharmacy benefits managers like Express Scripts or Caremark RX utilize information systems to perform safety checks, drug interaction screening and generic substitutions. In many places drug stores like Rite Aid and Walgreens use electronic communications to fill prescriptions.
Despite this thriving example of free-market enterprise, the Bush administration said it was earmarking $100 million toward the effort in the fiscal year 2005 budget. The business community has already shown that they are more than willing to invest in these programs on their own. This means that we are, once again, subsidizing the corporations who will be the beneficiaries of the greater efficiency and cost savings automation brings anyway.
Bush had this to say about what may be our nations most serious healthcare crisis:
"Docs are still spending a lot of time writing things on paper. And sometimes it's difficult to read their handwriting," Bush told an audience at Vanderbilt University...