Two reports
have 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
HEALTH
Minister Nicola Roxon has flatly ruled out paying for doctors to create and
maintain electronic health records on behalf of their patients.
In
a doorstop interview at the launch of a model e-health display in Parliament
House yesterday (MON), Ms Roxon replied "no" when asked if there
would be a special Medicare rebate for doctors using a new $500 million
nationwide patient electronic record system due to start next July 1.
"Look,
we're not contemplating a special rebate," she said. "I'm sure that
over time there'll be all sorts of different options and requests and they'll
be considered as they come."
Ms
Roxon said many doctors already use computerised systems to create electronic
records.
"Our
challenge, and what we're funding, is to make the system as simple as possible
for people to use," she said.
"We
are convinced that health professionals and patients understand the value of
adopting this."
More here:
Additionally
we have:
No rebate for PCEHR adoption
- By Michael Woodhead on 13 September 2011
The
government has ignored advice from medical groups on the PCEHR, with
health minister Nicola Roxon ruling out any special rebate to cover the costs
of adopting the new system.
In an interview yesterday she said GPs were already using computerised systems and 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 so that the system can talk to each other. It's not to fund each and every bit of a general practice or a health practice of any type which is going to constantly 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 extra training and support that practices will need to adopt the PCEHR and “to recognise the additional work GPs will undertake in consultations initiating and maintaining the patient’s Shared Health Summary and PCEHR.”
In an interview yesterday she said GPs were already using computerised systems and 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 so that the system can talk to each other. It's not to fund each and every bit of a general practice or a health practice of any type which is going to constantly 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 extra training and support that practices will need to adopt the PCEHR and “to recognise the additional work GPs will undertake in consultations initiating and maintaining the patient’s Shared Health Summary and PCEHR.”
More here:
It seems Ms
Roxon just does not have a clue. She does not seem to grasp that in the small
business that is General Practice that time is really money (and income) and
that if you cost GPs even a small amount of time you decrease their income.
I costed all
this here:
Even the
NEHTA Clinical Lead agrees!
As we know
every other section of the community - and especially unions - simply don’t
tolerate that sort of thing. Remember the GPs have a pretty powerful union of
their own - called the AMA - and unless this is quickly reversed to some sort
of sensible compromise - you can essentially forget the PCEHR.
I note, in
passing, the Government is also in denial about the likely costs of identifying
and enrolling consumers for access to their now unsupervised and information
quality poor PCEHR.
This just get
sillier by the day!
David.
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