If I may throw in a few words.
First, regarding software development. How many of you docs remember your med school years? How many of you remember your residency? How many of you would say being a doctor is easy? Being a developer, like being a doctor, is hard. Writing good quality code is hard. And nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Let's look at an example:
private function addTwoNumbers (byval firstNumber as Integer, byval secondNumber as Integer) as Integer
return firstNumber + secondNumber
end sub
Here we have a simple function that adds two numbers and gives the answer. Wow! That's so simple! It's simple until you stop and realize how utterly useless that function is. First, notice that it can only handle integers. What about numbers with decimal? Well, that's easy.
private function addTwoNumbers (byval firstNumber as decimal, byval secondNumber as decimal) as decimal
return firstNumber + secondNumber
end sub
But now we have a second problem. First, all answers, even those that are just integers, will be in decimal format. You now have to worry about how many significant digits you get back. How many of you want an answer such as 67.530495794757 returned? What if you are adding currency? And what if the user accidentally types in a letter or other character instead of a number? In this function's case, it will crash the program. You'll get an unhandled exception error or a type cast error depending on the language being used.
I could easily go on, but as we can see what is supposed to be a simple function is actually quite useless. There are too many situations it simply cannot handle without giving a wrong or undesireable answer or just plain crashing. By the time you add error checking and the ability to return an acceptable answer despite whatever kind of number is passed to it, I can promise you this function will become several lines of code long. In fact, you may end up with an entire math library of several functions to handle all the different scenarios adding two numbers entails.
One other factor about software development is do not allow yourself to be fooled by the 80/20 rule. 80% of an iceberg is underwater where you can't see it. You only deal with the top 20%. Software is the same way in that the user interface is only 20% of the program. The other 80% is data access libraries, error checking, and so forth that you do not see yet nonetheless must be there and work for the user interface to present you with meaningful information. These little hiccups the government keeps throwing at Jon really do cost. They cost development hours and they carry a heavy opportunity cost (refer back to your Economics class for the concept of opportunity cost). Instead of working on the PM part of Amazing Charts, Jon has to work on the latest government mandate. It's like running a marathon. If you allow yourself to get a mere 5 feet behind the lead runner, you will have to bust your [censored] just to catch back up - perhaps running a whole third to 50% faster than you were. Nevermind actually passing the lead runner. The situation Jon is in with writing code for government mandates in lieu of writing new features for AC is just such a marathon.
Secondly, government.
Believe it or not, I think what the government is doing with HIPAA is, overall, a good thing. I see more records electronic now than I ever dreamed possible. I'm sorry to say this, but doctors are slow to change. Most of you HATE computers and if left to your own devices would stay on paper doing what you are doing now the same way you have been doing it for the rest of your natural lives. None of you would change. It would also be impossible to switch doctors just like it was back in the 80's when, if you did switch, the new doctor would re-do all the work the previous guy did instead of trying to read his notes. Of course, that is expensive.
Is this to say the governent is doing a bang up job? Of course not. As usual, too many people have their hands in the pot, and rightly so since they all have a stake in whatever comes out of the situation. The government isn't to blame for this. Your next door neighbor is since he/she probably voted against you in the last election. That person told their senators that they want cheap healthcare and the ability to have their stuff securely moved from one practice to another so they could have choice. The problem, of course, is you have to buy a system that can do all that. The government does what the flavor of the month is and has no 15 year outlook. The reason, of course, is that voters do not have a 15 year outlook. We vote for people that will do stuff for us NOW. To hell with 15 years from now. Besides, who knows who will be in office by then, anyway.
I know many of you are frustrated and I empathize. I truly do. Please be patient and understanding. I'm sure Jon will come through. Unfortunately, for the time being he can only promise you blood, sweat, and tears (Churchill).
Thank you all for your time.
JamesNT
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