Greg Scandlen has sounded a warning about government-dictated health IT. He points to a scholarly article which demonstrates that health IT can make delivering medical care more dangerous than otherwise. Mr. Scandlen points out that vendors of health IT are hungry for government hand-outs, which will be significant under Obamacare.
Am I hyperventilating if I draw the obvious comparison between health IT and the gropey scanney stuff going on at the airports? The manufacturers of scanners have doubled their lobbying investments in the last five years and cultivated members of the political class, like former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, as spokesmen.
Just like the scanners, health IT investments will be made by politically connected manufacturers with the best lobbyists money can buy. The most successful adoptions of technology are done by consumers on our own. Nobody complains about being forced to use an iPod or a Blackberry: They are each individual’s choice.
Government-dictated health IT will have the same effect as government-dictated airport scanning: Loss of privacy, increase in hassle, and another obstacle blocking your ability to get what you need!
Research and commentary from a former senior executive in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
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