Two reportshave appeared today which, in my view sink the PCEHR program.
First we had.
E-health rebates ruled out
- Karen Dearne
- From: Australian IT
- September 13, 2011
HEALTHMinister Nicola Roxon has flatly ruled out paying for doctors to create andmaintain electronic health records on behalf of their patients.
Ina doorstop interview at the launch of a model e-health display in ParliamentHouse yesterday (MON), Ms Roxon replied "no" when asked if therewould be a special Medicare rebate for doctors using a new $500 millionnationwide patient electronic record system due to start next July 1.
"Look,we're not contemplating a special rebate," she said. "I'm sure thatover time there'll be all sorts of different options and requests and they'llbe considered as they come."
MsRoxon said many doctors already use computerised systems to create electronicrecords.
"Ourchallenge, and what we're funding, is to make the system as simple as possiblefor people to use," she said.
"Weare convinced that health professionals and patients understand the value ofadopting this."
More here:
Additionallywe have:
No rebate for PCEHR adoption
- By Michael Woodhead on 13 September 2011
Thegovernment has ignored advice from medical groups on the PCEHR, withhealth minister Nicola Roxon ruling out any special rebate to cover the costsof adopting the new system.
In an interview yesterday she said GPs were already using computerised systemsand would see the value in switching to a new and better record system.
“The government's commitments are to fund the infrastructure that's required sothat the system can talk to each other. It's not to fund each and every bit ofa general practice or a health practice of any type which is going toconstantly update itself and want to keep up with modern technology,” she said.
The RACGP had previously lobbied the government for a rebate to cover the extratraining and support that practices will need to adopt the PCEHR and “torecognise the additional work GPs will undertake in consultations initiatingand maintaining the patient’s Shared Health Summary and PCEHR.”
In an interview yesterday she said GPs were already using computerised systemsand would see the value in switching to a new and better record system.
“The government's commitments are to fund the infrastructure that's required sothat the system can talk to each other. It's not to fund each and every bit ofa general practice or a health practice of any type which is going toconstantly update itself and want to keep up with modern technology,” she said.
The RACGP had previously lobbied the government for a rebate to cover the extratraining and support that practices will need to adopt the PCEHR and “torecognise the additional work GPs will undertake in consultations initiatingand maintaining the patient’s Shared Health Summary and PCEHR.”
More here:
It seems MsRoxon just does not have a clue. She does not seem to grasp that in the smallbusiness that is General Practice that time is really money (and income) andthat if you cost GPs even a small amount of time you decrease their income.
I costed allthis here:
Even theNEHTA Clinical Lead agrees!
As we knowevery other section of the community - and especially unions - simply don’ttolerate that sort of thing. Remember the GPs have a pretty powerful union oftheir own - called the AMA - and unless this is quickly reversed to some sortof sensible compromise - you can essentially forget the PCEHR.
I note, inpassing, the Government is also in denial about the likely costs of identifyingand enrolling consumers for access to their now unsupervised and informationquality poor PCEHR.
This just getsillier by the day!
David.
