I have been diarying hard on the subject of Health Insurance. I'm not a well known expert like NYCEVE
but i've been writing hard about the Veterans Administration
The single most important Innovation at VA is their Electronic Medical Record (VA-VISTA). It allows the VA to use IT for medicine the same way Walmart uses IT for efficient retail. VISTA allows evidence based medicine, to track patients for preventative care, to avoid prescription errors and maintain continuity of care.
The Insurance companies are taking $3 Billion dollars of your money to destroy any future of efficient effective health care.
If you act now, you can save Health cares future.
Do you like the Internet? Do you like how any computer will work with any ISP, how you can go
from your home to your office to a cafe and surf the net?
Do you like your cell phone company? Do you like paying $300 for a new handset,and new accessories?
Do you like paying cancellation fees to get out of a service contract?
The difference is between proprietary networks and open architectures.
When a proprietary network is created, the owner, owns it all,and sells it to you in chunks at their
best advantage. In open architectures, you choose where to plug in, you buy the parts you want
and they work anywhere.
Right now the Congress put $3 Billion into funding "Effective Patient Medical Records" as part of the
stimulus bill. The Insurance companies are trying to use that money to create multiple conflicting
data standards, that way they can charge you for your health data, they can charge you for transporting
information, they can charge you for conversion, they can own your data. The Insurance companies
want to be Microsoft, and it's no coincidence that Microsoft's largest corporate efforts are now in Health Care Informatics.
The VA has a working standard that could easily be extended.With $3 billion in the stimulus package we could
give every Doctor in america the VA software, hardware and system. make that the publically owned
standard.
In 2005 Bush gave $7 Million to CCIHT to develope multiple conflicting Electronic data standards.
We need to end that.
There's only one thing preventing that. You.
We must Contact HHS and Congress and Insist the funds in the Stimulus be used to provide the VA record system as the ONLY record system.
Call Congress, 202 224 3121
Call HHS 202-619-0257 and tell them
1- Cancel the CCIHT Contract.
2- Have VA give out the software for VISTA to ALL who ask, FREE, and have HHS give contracts
to install VA VISTA as the only standard Patient EMR.