Catherine, I would be a little careful drawing cross industry analogies. The third largest freight company in the US, Consolidated Freightways, went bankrupt a few weeks ago.
Regards, David Frenkel HCTI www.hcti.org 425-260-5030 -----Original Message----- From: Catherine Lohmeier (Consultant) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 6:03 AM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: Notice of Non-participation in Government Medical Records Program My opinion is this, the trucking industry is more efficient than the healthcare industry in this country. That is positively obscene. I am for anything that will help get the costs down so average people can afford healthcare again. Technology and computers revolutionized every other industry: distribution, manufacturing, transportation and it's high time this happened in healthcare. Unfortunately, the information is extremely sensitive and will be more so as DNA testing can possibly predict your genetic disposition towards certain diseases. So, yes, we need federal regulations to protect this information. A gentleman's agreement just isn't good enough anymore. I'm sure when the telephone was introduced some people thought it was a big waste....the telegraph was working perfectly well at the time. So, the Privacy/Security rules are there for a good reason. They are going to help healthcare start using technology to deliver better and more cost effective services. Technology may even help keep people in hospitals from getting the wrong or conflicting medications, or having duplicate or unnecessary procedures performed on them. What a concept... Let's get over the shock and indignation of being told/made to do what we should have done in the first place and get back to working on compliance. Catherine Lohmeier -----Original Message----- From: fwdanby [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 11:59 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Privacy Subject: Re: Notice of Non-participation in Government Medical Records Program As I'm sure you guys remember, our industry assisted with the HIPAA > legislation as well as the regulations. We all had input. > > In the South, we say at this point "this dog won't hunt". > > In my humble opinion, we're in the people business not the dodge-em > business. Yes Rebecca, you and the industry assisted, and that assistance was most valuable in regard to electronic transactions for billing purposes. The Ins Cos had hidden behind their electronic inefficiencies, crying all the way to the bank, for quite long enough. And we providers will THANK YOU mightily for the help - we were unable to do it alone - they just laughed at us. But Privacy is getting out of hand, and just wait until we start to deal with Security. These two dogs are going to be about as useful as E&M Guidelines - a 7-8 year boonDOGgle that never hunted either. Again, though, thanks for the uniform coding retriever. Or maybe it will be a sheepdog, nipping at the heels of the Ins Cos - getting them into line. Can you imagine - allowing providers to really get paid according to AMA CPT codes instead of getting ripped off by ClaimCheck and its bastard cousins? Awesome. Bill D. ********************************************************************** To be removed from this list, go to: http://snip.wedi.org/unsubscribe.cfm?list=privacy and enter your email address. The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. Posting of advertisements or other commercial use of this listserv is specifically prohibited. ********************************************************************** To be removed from this list, go to: http://snip.wedi.org/unsubscribe.cfm?list=privacy and enter your email address. The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. Posting of advertisements or other commercial use of this listserv is specifically prohibited. ********************************************************************** To be removed from this list, go to: http://snip.wedi.org/unsubscribe.cfm?list=privacy and enter your email address. The WEDI SNIP listserv to which you are subscribed is not moderated. The discussions on this listserv therefore represent the views of the individual participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the WEDI Board of Directors nor WEDI SNIP. If you wish to receive an official opinion, post your question to the WEDI SNIP Issues Database at http://snip.wedi.org/tracking/. Posting of advertisements or other commercial use of this listserv is specifically prohibited.
