Electronic Medical Records and Reality

The idea that Electronic Medical Records (EMR) will save 11 billion dollars in the USA annually is ludicrous. For starters, those records need to be secure at all times. There goes some of your 'savings' already. We all know how reliable the internet is when it comes to securing what is important to us. Did you smell that just now? That was called sarcasm.

So, assuming we are going to spend some of that 'savings' on security, what else do we have to lose by submitting our medical history to the digital age? How about data loss? That data you are giving your doctor is just as prone to being lost as anything else, it isn't special. Your doctor is the one responsible for it, therefore it is they who store it. Unless your doctor has a full time IT specialist on hand, you should know his job is to fix what ails you, not uploading in binary your latest medical charts. Speaking of IT specialists, shouldn't we look forward to paying them when something happens to this data? Or even paying another company to store backups of our records. Which goes right back to the security issue in the first place.

Do you know who has access to these records? Unlike the old paper days, anyone with internet access can literally access your medical history. Of course you may need to hack into the account, but people can do it, and even if you don't know someone who can, a little bit of cash goes along way in the hacker world. So much for your doctor and the receptionist and the nurse as the only ones who have your medical history. Now all of China and any insurance company who wants it can have it.

Speaking of insurance companies...

Have a pre existing condition? Have a test recently and can't understand the codes? The insurance companies sure can. And they all will have access to your cholesterol levels and whether you are a smoker or even genetically prone to certain conditions and diseases. All with the click of a mouse.

And lastly, my conspiracy theory...

The government wants to know how healthy or not healthy its citizens are. Why? If they ever pass this health insurance bill for everyone kick, the one's who have pre existing conditions will not be covered. Instead of asking everyone, or asking doctors (which would be a HIPAA violation I think), all they have to do is access your online medical history. I'm sure there will be some sort of consent that says they will be able to access it. If you don't consent to it, you can't be insured. A nice Catch-22. So, I believe this EMR idea is going to be one of the scariest things that will ever happen in the US, especially if a bill comes up that attempts to make it law.

Summary:

EMR's mean a security risk on your part
Everyone will have access to your medical records
It won't save money, as it will cost money still to secure and keep them
Data loss means your medical history is gone