I smell a government rat.  Since the unavoidable outcome of Obamacare is a government takeover of the health industry, this will be a great tool for the government to have access to even more personal information on us than they already have.  Most people will fail to recognize the dangers inherent in this until it's too late.  They will trust the government to act in their best interest right up until the shackles are placed on their arms and legs.  We are signing ourselves over to state-slavery.  Be careful. 

No. It will though make all our medical records available to any hacker, goverment (local or federal), IRS, insurance agency, etc., that is interested in control.

One major issue to be resolved is privacy. Right now medical information is a great deal like Facebook. You sign a paper when you first visit a hospital or physician that says that they own your medical information (not just the records themselves) and may disclose them to anyone they wish for any reason they wish.

Physicians offices and hospitals routinely sell medical records in the aggregate or individually to insurance companies, employers, and anyone else who asks. Physician/patient confidentiality is an urban myth. Blue Cross of California was recently caught paying physicians a $5,000 bounty to disclose preexisting conditions from patients' medical records.

Drug companies routinely buy patient records from physicians to assess their prescribing habits and pressure them to prescribe different drugs. Employers get physicians to run extra tests during employment physicals and buy thge information from them.

Your medical files are a treasure trove of information about your lifestyle choices that you do not necessarily want to share with insurance companies or employers. People forget that physician's evaluations of patients also include personal observations that may be wrong. For example, years ago I worked for Blue Cross of Tennessee as a programmer. To test fixes, we often used our own records since we could not use patient data. I discovered that my physician was making claims for procedures and office visits that had not taken place. I reported him and he was dropped as a Blue Cross participant as a result. He put in my records that I was a known drug addict. My new physician had a lot of fun with it.

Digital medical records will be easily hacked at the weakest spot in the entire provider system. Maybe a disgruntled employee at a hospital or a physicians' office that has no interest in security or anyone anywhere in the system who just is interested in money.

I am sure some physician will say, "I would NEVER sell your medical information." To that person, I would suggest that he read his/her office's paperwork for a new patient. It will tell a far different story everywhere except California.

Chris,

Once the provisions of Obamacare making the purchase of insurance mandatory takes effect, enough people will opt for the cheaper government-offered plans that the private companies will suffer. In a nasty downward spiral, as the private insurers are forced to raise prices to meet a declining enrollment, the governmet, which doesn't have to make a profit to begin with, will eventually become the only game in town. It isn't a stated intent, but all you have to do is read between the lines. And this is just the beginning.

I have been using electronic records for years. They will not save your life and create as many new errors as they solve. The real push for EHR is so the gov can access your data. I like to use an EHR but many older docs do not and when you figure that most of the primary care docs in the US are near retirement age and would rather quit then use them we could be facing a problem. If EHR's were as wonderfull as professed the gov would not try to bribe and coerce docs into using them. I have spent 60K implementing mine over the last five years and spend several thousand a year on software upkeep/tech support. I currently meet all the gov requirements for meaningfull use but I will not take one dime of gov money since it is tax payer money and we need less taxes and not more.

Electronic medical records will be as accurate as the people who use them. I fear doctors who will just click boxes on an electronic form and not actually examine the patient. I agree that electronic medical records will be in cyberspace for anyone with a little computer knowledge to retrieve and use for whatever reason.

mrjones, Do us all a favor and do some research before you make comments on topics where you know nothing. President Bush started the electronic records push. We are far behind other advanced countries in this area.

You might want to look at some articles on VistA, which is the VA's EMR. A little bit of googling and reading will give you insights into its possibilities and problems. The VA is able to do huge amounts of medical research using VistA. Very interesting topic.

On a personal level, my doctor's office is completely electronic and I am happy with their system.

There is no PP in HIPAA folks. It's the Health Information Portability Accountability Act. Amazing how many people claim they are 'informed' about 'HIPPA'.

In a previous off-the-ranch job, I worked as a customer service representative for a credit card company. I learned a dirty secret about Social Security Numbers and other government issued identifiers - - they are not truly unique. Occasionally, Social Security has issued the same number to two different people. People make copying errors. People use other people's number. People create non-existent numbers for various reasons. You may never know that your number has been compromised, until you use the number.

Consider someone hauled into an emergency room several years ago. When asked for his name, he gives it. When asked for his Social Security number, he makes a mistake. If that number matches someone else, his ER visit will not appear on his record, but will appear on the other person's record. This could cause problems in the future. For example, if that ER visit turned out to be appendicitis and the appendix was removed, medical professionals might rule out appendicitis as the cause of pain in the abdomen of the other person. Why? Because doctors and other medical professionals have been taught to assume that medical records are correct until proven otherwise.

Insurance companies will believe the records, also. One doctor I know socially complained about the paperwork he went through and the time he wasted after delivering a baby to a woman that her insurance company swore had a hysterectomy that they had already paid for. Situations like that will become more common when health records are erroneously merged.

Electronic health records will eventually be a good thing which will help patients and save both lives and money, but great care must be taken to avoid errors and systems must be in place to correct errors, when found.

I have worked in the medical office environment for 25 years. Every time the government implements a new change for the good of the patient, it always goes wrong for hospitals, doctors clinics and patients. HIPAA is good example. It gave insurance companies more fodder to deny claims. POA indicaters (Present On Admittion) are another example. Just one more reason for medical insurances to find an excuse not to pay. When the UB92 format changed to UB04, hospitals had to pay thousands of dollars to pay for the software update and guess where that cost was transfered to? Patients of course. Now we're going to have our medical information floating from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital, and how are they going to access it? ID's and passwords which are easy to get. And what about identifying your records from another person with the same name and date of birth. They will have to use something that indentifies you from the John Doe down the street. How about your social security number? I don't know about you but I do not want my SSN that accessable. This is BAD people. But it is also inevitable with today's technology. Eventually your entire life will be lived, abused, and expired on the internet.

This is how they're selling this cr@p to the public:  "it's so good for you! It could save your life!"

Never mind that some of us DON'T WANT THIS "service".   The sting is in that one line: researchers can use it. I DO NOT WANT ANYONE HAVING MY DATA WHO DOES NOT HAVE MY CONSENT.

I've stopped going to the doctor except as a last resort (when I have bronchitis I can't cure myself, etc). I get meds from Mexico when I'm down there, and refuse to answer most of the doc's questions. I refuse to fill out family medical history, etc, and have threatened my family members if they give out any of mine.

"But this could risk your life!" you cry. So be it.

Have been in this business niche for 35 years on both sides; IT heath care software vendors and hospitals. My observation is this: the health care IT software ndustry, all of it, is much less than forthright about its capability to provide the systems interoperability required to truly have electronic health care records for all; the providers, hospitals and physician practices, do not have the resources required to implement the systems necessary to fulfill the vision of the current Administration, even if the systems were available.

Over the coming years, similar to what happened in the UK when it unsuccessfully attempted to implement nationwide electronic health records , precious resources will be spent pursuing federal grants, IT software vendors will continue to sell "smoke and mirrors" and consultants will get rich. But unlike the UK, the USA has a major disadvantage no one wants to address; unique patient identifiers are essential for exchanging personal health information. In the UK, everyone has a national ID, not so in the US. So think about patient John Smith from New York City; how can one system exchange information with another system on John Smith without knowing exactly which John Smith, of the thousands living in NYC, to exchange information on. If you think John Smith's name, date of birth, address, weight, race, national origin, etc are adequate data to correctly id John Smith, you might be 95% correct. Unfortunately, that's too large a margin of error. Would you settle for the likelihood that your physician in LA is 95% sure (s)he has your personal health information that was electronically transferred from NYC? How about a similar scenario occurring between a physician office and a community hospital in Anytown, USA?

What should be of more concern to the current Administration is getting the foundation for electronic health records in place before spending Gabillions on the big picture. Knowing who the patient is with 100% certainty, is fundamental for going forward with electronic health records at the physician office, hospital campus, health community network, statewide and national health consortium levels. Like it or not, we remain light years from a solution and so, we remain light years from fulfilling the vision as expressed by the President

Al Worthington, RHIA

Glenside, PA

Yes every doctor goes digital, but yet when I go from one office to another  they can't access any of that information.  Every office visit begins with never ending questionnaire what pills do I take, my family sicknesses, my sicknesses,surgeries etc, etc. (I like to take paper copies of my blood work cause guess what?  if you don't have it you get the same test again)  The best part is the referral joke.  When my specialist needs a referral I have to call my primary with all the never ending numbers and procedure names, and deal with this baloney.  Well how about putting the numbers in the computer system and let the primary verify it, anyway the primary was the one who referred me to the specialist.  It will never work just like the high speed train will never happened

Where is the patient control? How can we correct errors? How can we remove private information? With a paper based system, the patient can control what information is given to a healthcare professional. There is no reason for my dentist to know how many times I was treated for a STD when I was in college!

Confirmed

Electronic records sound great, but what happens when they are wrong? My Father's doctor's office switched to electronic medical records two years ago. They still don't have his list of medications correct. And it is only that one office that inputs the records. What will happen when there are multiple doctors' offices adding information, some of it incorrect, into an electronic record? These types of errors can be life threatening in a crisis. Who would believe the patient or the family member when they say the records are wrong?

Every time the Government helps us out it cost us money we do no have. Besides we did not ask for this. This is just another invasion of my privacy and Government control. The Government does not need to see my medical records. Next they will be telling me what care I do or do not need. This is not what this Country was about,,,,it is about freedom"

Stop trying to help me. I did no ask you to and can not afford it. Please all guy's just sit there and do not try and help anymore. Don't pass anymore rules,,do not even talk. Enough is enough

I've used an EHR for over 27 years by way of MedicAlert. I have a condition that requires me to wear medical ID, and have grown up used to the idea of having my information immediately accessible to ER staff and paramedics just in case it is needed. If the system envisioned would be that reliable, trustworthy and accurate, then it would be a plus. The downside? Information overload...if an ER nurse has to page through your entire file to get your allergy history, and the file isn't the same format as hers and takes an IT person to download, then you're probably no better off than if the ER called your doctor's office.

Digital records have already allowed, through a single keystroke error of my SSN, me to be billed for open heart surgery that I never had.

What I imagine is the difficulty of trying to remove a hospital or doctor's mistake from this digital system. Should be just as easy as removing errors from your digital credit report right?

So if this digital recording of "my" open heart surgery went into a nationwide system then I would denied all sorts of medications that could conflict with my "condition". In fact, the person who had the open heart surgery was female so the pharmacy would probably change my hormone prescription to estrogen to correct a "problem".

Shouldn't hurt me much though since it only takes 90 days to a year or more to correct errors on my credit report/medical report! Individuals have to be responsible for ensuring accuracy not the government. Both can make a mistake but at least an individual has common sense!!

I'm not sure why people assume if you dislike Obama then you loved Bush. The problem is big government taking bites out of our lives, and the fact that we don't seem to make the connection between a lot of little bites adding up to one big deadly one. Despots don't have to assume power in abrupt revolutions. The best way to take over anyplace is incrimentally. We have the chance this fall to take back a bit of what we've recently lost. Elect people who will help repeal Obamacare. Fixing what's wrong with health care in this country with his plan is like opening a stuck door with dynamite. Kiss the door good-bye!

What I hate the most is the inability to opt out of this. What if I DON'T WANT my life history available to every talented hacker out there?

What about incorrect reports? True story: Social worker did not interview patient, family, psychiatrist, or ER doc, but made a report with and I quote "wild inaccuracies and claims" that got the entire medical staff at a hospital in an uproar ... and who does this kind of stuff affect the most? The child and its family. Permanently in nearly all cases. Most doctors wouldn't have noticed such a report, but this one happened to be a personal case and therefore he took notice.

Don't let your kid hurt itself, Social Services will get involved, and too many people will see that record, because it will all be digital and too many people have access to that. You can't opt out of it. It's there forever. And eyes from anywhere in the WORLD will have access to it, rather than just locals.

Yes, I do see the pros to this, I do. But I also see some mighty big dangers. Privacy? Who needs privacy? Just leave the stall doors off, we don't need privacy in ANY part of our lives any more, so thinks this government.

If you like the way the credit rating industry does its dirty work, you will love electronic medical records. As usual, the techno-weenie crowd that stands to make a killing off this spews all kinds of breathless big picture nonsense to convince us that this is something we really really need. And if you disagree you must be some flat-earther who does not know what is good for you.

The problem of course is ownership and oversight. Without a patient having a legal right to view and control such information, this opens the door to huge problems. Imagine being classified as a "difficult" patient because you sought a second opinion and being denied care for the rest of your life because you are a "code grey." Or imagine getting endless e-mails and junk mail targeting you because you once had some embarassing condition that was sold to some marketing company or worse - passed on to a cybercrime ring.

For obvious reasons, the weenies behind this never include the ways it will be used to make our lives even more miserable in their sales pitches. And it will ...

Let's make personal medical information so accessible that it can be passed around as easy as an e-mail attachment and swear that nobody will see it that you don't want to. It sounds like a great idea...wouldn't it be great if the surgeon could receive your complete medical history so he can be fully prepared? Well, what if the government feels it is imperative that they receive your records? What about the Joint Commission for Accreditation that reviews hospitals? What about the new insurance company that wants your old records? What about your employer? What about some accident where your records go to everyone in some Medical Records department's outbox?

They can't keep your credit card and social security information away from foreign hackers, how would you like them to get ahold of your most private info and post it on the Internet?

It's getting easier and easier for your medical info to get splattered all over.

This is one of those great ideas like Kudzu that worked fine in the beginning but will grow out of control.

I've been actively seeking medical help for the past three years during which my records were available in electronic form. It wasn't until my disease state degraded to the point that a blood test led to a biopsy that I was finally diagnosed. Electronic medical records didn't hasten my diagnosis.

Wouldn't life be so much better and easier if we just moved back into the caves? Think how calm life would be when we no longer have processes that required us to deal with incompetent or paranoid people. Progress only creates additional problems of which we have enough. What are the odds we can eliminate all those people with a "better idea"?