Hence, EMRs are commissioned by administrators for administrators and are not focused on patient care, but rather on regulatory compliance. Where is the science to prove this helps healthcare? It’s just not there. We see fewer patients. It is less efficient. The only saving grace I see is in electronic prescribing, but even that has shortfalls: You can’t find the pharmacy; it may not have all of the medications the patient takes; and you have to fill out an electronic prior approval, which takes even longer, so unfortunately, I still have to use paper and faxes for prior approvals.
Red Tape
Medicine has been taken over by administration, which stifles scientific innovation. Science has been lost in this environment. Medicine has been kidnapped by a bunch of government-driven regulations that cost billions of unnecessary taxpayer dollars for oversight. There is no science in this bureaucracy, which has exploded out of control. Medicine should be about the patient–physician relationship and how to apply science to this art, not excessive regulations that require countless numbers of people to oversee checkboxes for regulatory compliance instead of delivering medical care.
What about ICD-10?
We are told we need ICD-10 to collect better data and improve quality of patient care. It is expected to lead to better justification of medical necessity and improved implementation of national and local coverage determinations. The result will be more accurate payments, and fraud detection will be improved. We have learned differently.
ICD codes were developed by the World Health Organization for mortality statistics. We are told that every country in the world uses ICD-10. But for most, this is for demographics or, in some countries, hospital coding. For us, ICD codes are used for one reason alone—to file claims and get paid, and by insurers to deny payment. The U.S. is the only country using ICD codes to pay physicians. ICD-10 codes will result in more claim denials.4 The cost savings from the ICD-10 conversion is based on paying fewer dollars to providers. As physicians, we have seen that we are spending more time with EMRs and coding, our efficiency is decreased, and we earn less money. The data collected will be meaningless.
The ICD-10 burden is placed on top of cuts in insurance payments and excessive administrative demands, such as Meaningful Use, Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and increasing insurance authorizations. For some physicians, it will be the final straw—forcing some to close their doors and abandon the practice of medicine, leaving thousands of patients without care.
