In a Bloomberg commentary, Betsy McCaughey writes “Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan.”

“Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.” Betsy McCaughey recommends that no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions without discussion, and that Senators should vote against them because they are dangerous to our health.

“The bill’s health rules will affect ‘every individual in the United States’…Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.” But Ms. McCaughey says the bill goes farther.

She states that the federal government will mandate what treatment is appropriate and cost effective, and doctors will give up autonomy.

New Penalties

“Hospitals and doctors that are not ‘meaningful users’ of the new system will face penalties.” Will these penalties deter a doctor from doing what he thinks best? Tom Daschle, in his 2008 book “Critical: what We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis”, has suggested that the goal is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs, and says that Americans expect too much from their healthcare system.

Daschle says that health-care reform “will not be pain-free”. Seniors will be impacted and services will be rationed as cost-effectiveness becomes a priority. President Obama has called for more scrutiny. Healthcare should be treated as a growth industry, and not just a cost problem.

Is she right? Is she wrong? What are your thoughts?

Last night on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, there was a segment called “Healthcare’s High Tech Transition.”  Williams mentioned President Obama’s Healthcare Reform Plan, which calls for the transition from paper to digital medical records within five years.

It is obviously a very popular topic with us.  I have brought up before, and I’m sure it will come up again.  Williams’ segment was timely because he said a new study was released last night that says, “less than 2% of the nation’s hospitals have fully electronic records.”  Will the other 98% please call me?  I will fly to you if that is easier.

NBC News’ Chief Science and Health Correspondent, Robert Bazell, narrated the piece. He mentioned the the “old way” of medical records was “mountains of folders often written in illegible scrawl and difficult to find.” The “new way” is obviously electronic medical records.If only he added, “The new way is MedsFile.com!”

Bazell interviewed a doctor at a hospital with electronic medical records. The doctor replied that, “they show almost everything I want to know about the patient.” Bazell added, “President Obama wants the whole country’s medical system to be electronic in five years,” which we know, and then showed a clip of President Obama saying that electronic medical records will “cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests.”

In the segment, Dr. Steven Corwin, Chief Operating Officer of New York Presbyterian Hospital said that after his hospital implemented electronic medical records that “medication errors went down about 80%.” Wow!

According to Bazell, the two biggest obstacles with electronic medical records are, 1.) Patient privacy, and 2.) The difficulty of two separate computers talking to each other.

First, MedsFile.com takes patient privacy very seriously. Our unique two-level security approach keeps patient’s information private and secure. We are even currently working on a specific program that will take our security to a new level!

Second, as the “.com” in our company name indicates, MedsFile.com is completely web-based. ANY computer or cell phone with Internet-access can visit MedsFile.com and access a patient’s personal health record when the patient has given permission to do so.

Bazell ended the clip that electronic medical records are “the future of medicine.” With MedsFile.com, the future is now.

View the 2:14 segment here: