This appeared in 6minuites today.
Doctors to pay for e-health upgrades
by Jared Reed
Nicola Roxon says doctors rather than the government will foot the bill for upgrading IT systems during the move towards an integrated national e-health system.
The minister toured the offices of Medicare in Canberra yesterday to look at the various tools that will be encompassed in e-health legislation the government plans to introduce soon.
Ms Roxon says she expects health providers, not the government, to fund the majority of its e-health agenda.
“We believe there's good reasons that healthcare providers and businesses and professionals can pay to upgrade their systems,” she said yesterday.
The government will adopt a more hands-off approach in the execution of e-health, acting instead as an overseer and intermediary between providers, she added.
“This isn’t an entire government enterprise. It’s about government using its role to link the different providers at appropriate times for the benefit of the patient.”
More here:
http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=509538
What on earth is she smoking? There is no reason for Doctors to do anything of the sort that I can see, other than those few who operate with a (very deep) sense of altruism or those who are technogeeks and love playing with the blinking lights.
Nowhere else in the world has it been seen to be reasonable to pay for technology upgrades which, after all, typically require time, effort and cost to install and once operational provide the majority of the benefits of the use of the technology to the patient and those who fund the health services.
Technology Introduction 101 is quite clear – those who benefit are those who should pay!
Unless the migration to e-Health is made cost neutral for the health-care providers you can have a rolled gold 100% guarantee progress will be glacial at best!
I wonder just what the good reasons are she has for her "provider to pay" plan. Funny there is no explanation provided. The reason is, of course, that no rational justification exists - as the rest of the world knows!
Just arrant nonsense. I have never seen such silliness from a Minister of the Crown in all my now rather too many adult years!
David.
2 comments:
Political speak is often confusing. But there is nothing confusing about what Minister Roxon is saying. Ms Roxon says she expects health providers, not the government, to fund the majority of its e-health agenda.
Now that is a clear positioning statement preparing the way ahead for the next major announcement which will follow soon. After that announcement has been made she may well choose to change the storyline, as is her prerogative, but for the moment she has made her position clear.
“We believe there's good reasons that healthcare providers and businesses and professionals can pay to upgrade their systems,” she said yesterday. "The government will adopt a more hands-off approach in the execution of e-health, acting instead as an overseer and intermediary between providers", she added.
So where is this intended to lead? It is all part and parcel of the announcement being prepared to distance the government and facilitate the Guild's involvement in delivering an escript exchange in equal partnership with government under the 5th Community Pharmacy Agreement.
As Ripley used to say .... "Believe it or not.
I think the Minister is serving up a big dose of political pragmatism to everyone, vendors, users and Nehta. included.
In saying health providers can fund the ehealth agenda she is doing a number of things:
1. distancing government from that responsibility and preparing the ground for further withdrawal which might even include curtailing funds from the politically embarrassing situation that the Nehta has created through 5 years of non-performance, multiple broken promises and non deliverables of anything much
2. making it clear that if ehealth is to stand on its own two feet it must be in a commercially viable environment where the strong survive and the weak wither and die in a contestable market environment
3. by indicating that “healthcare providers and businesses and professionals can pay to upgrade their systems” she is saying - you find a way to fund what is needed to do what you say you believe needs to be done. If that means increasing prices to consumers and patients so be it, if it means trying to extract more from government so be it - you develop the business model that will give the results you want to see but don’t rely on government to keep your boats afloat.
4. making a clear statement that the government has done its bit in responding to the GFC and keeping the country afloat - now it is up to the ehealth experts to find a way to work together to make ehealth come true; it is too hard for government because we are not close enough to the coalface, where it all happens, to be effective.
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