"Upon learning what I do, several attendees went into some pretty serious rants about how electronic health records have destroyed…
Morning Headlines 12/8/16
Congress passes 21st Century Cures Act, boosting research and easing drug approvals
The Senate passes the 21st Century Cures Act in a 94 to 5 vote, sending it to the President’s desk for signature. The President praised the bill Wednesday and confirmed that he would sign it.
Twenty-One Indicted in the Forest Park Medical Center Health Care Fraud
The FBI has indicted 21 employees from Forest Park Medical Center (TX), claiming that they paid $40 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for referrals to its purely out-of-network health system.
CRISPR court hearing puts University of California on the defensive
The patent case over CRISPR-cas9 technology, likely the most valuable patent in biotechnology, begins as the University of California argues to have MIT and Harvard’s patent invalidated and transferred to UC.
Slavitt: ‘There should be no pride of authorship’ with healthcare reform
During an interview at Modern Healthcare’s 2016 Leadership Symposium, Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt called on lawmakers to focus ACA reform discussions on parts of the law that are not working, saying “If we can improve upon the things that were started in the ACA, we should do it. It doesn’t matter if that comes from a Democrat. It doesn’t matter if it comes from a Republican.”
Andy S. says we are at iPhone 2? Puhlease. More like Commodore 64. Apple was not straddled with 1000 page yearly, ever changing legislation that required users of the iPhone to perform data entry, force users to use complex meaningless apps, fail at every turn in safety security usability cost and burden. Its the worst analogy ever. CMS and the US Gov should exit the healthcare regulation game. They are only causing further delay of innovation in EHR IT and value based care. MU PQRS were and are total failures. MACRA is more of the same. It will also fail. The anger in the front line MD community is palpable. If you do not feel it then, you do not work with front line MDs. EHRs have failed to improve ANYTHING about medical care/cost/efficiency and all seems to be only worsening every year. The complexity in using them is frightening. ACOs & Medical Home have already failed and failed miserably. Dartmouth who started the ACO mess, left theirs this year. Andy and CMS and ONC need to resist the temptation to hyper-regulate medical care in the US. Their legacy is the destruction of the hearts and minds of physicians. We may never get us back.
Meltoots — No fear! New HHS leader Price is heavily supported ($$$) by physician led associations. He’s well aware of the burden MU is placing on practicing docs & will make a point to do away with it fast. #MAGA