Bert, don't start sounding like me!!
I really hesitate to say what I think about this, because it makes me look like one of those "rich doctors" with too much money to consider the "little people", but I'm going to anyway.
I don't think implementing or using unhelpful parts of any tool specifically to make money is the right idea. I know, and you know, physicians who really stretch indications for procedures because of the income it will produce, not because it is good medicine. It makes me ashamed to see it. I have seen presentations on coding that stressed how to make a note that qualified as a level 4 exam when we all knew good and well that it was a middle of the road followup for a couple of everyday problems. And, I think dealing with an EMR because one hopes to get paid is similar.
I think the point of any of this was to make medicine better. I remain totally trashed out that the one thing the government could do... require common data standards so my EMR could seamlessly import records from your EMR... it failed to do. But, there is still a lot of good possible in going electronic. And, no, I do not think that being more efficient so you can spend less time with each patient, or justifying coding to a higher level, or going after government "vapormoney" is part of that good. It is part of what I think is bad in medicine.
As I have said, I sit at the end of a rather long career, considering pretty much every day if today is the day I decide to hang it up. Things were different when I was starting, building a practice, and worried about income. I realize my view is somewhat ethereal. But I really believe that the essential value of being a physician is to do something because it is the right thing to do. And, not because it makes money.
Last edited by dgrauman; 04/14/2011 10:46 PM.
