By Barbara Day, M.S., R.D., C.N.
Rick Redding wrote an excellent recap of what Ted Smith had to say about Economic Growth & Innovation in Metro Louisville at the Breakfast of Champions meeting. But after I heard Ted’s excellent background in healthcare I was particularly interested to hear what he had to say about Affordable Care’s Electronic Medical Record mandate for healthcare providers who care for Medicare patients.
Who is Ted Smith, PhD?
Dr. Smith received his undergraduate degree in BioPsychology from Allegheny College, his PhD in Cognitive Science from Miami University and a Post-Doc Fellowship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr. Smith developed a company called MedTrackAlert that he was able to sell for a considerable amount of money to the HealthCentral Network. As a Kentucky Regional Finance Support member for the Obama National Finance Committee, Dr. Smith was offered a job as a Senior Advisor, Innovations and technology Transfer, ONC, with the US Department of Health & Human Services in Washington, DC. He was working with the Department of Health & Human Services developing the Affordable Care’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) which will be required by all physicians, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and any health care entity that takes care of Medicare patients.
Many Physicians are Leaving Medicine or no Longer seeing Medicare Patients
Dr. Smith said that many physicians were leaving the medical profession because of the enforcement of Affordable Care’s EMR mandate. However, some physicians will no longer participate in Medicare as a result of the EMR mandate and/or the low Federal Government reimbursements for care. Health care professionals will have a certain period to convert to the EMR if they accept Medicare patients. If they do not computerize and use mandated EMRs, they will receive lower reimbursements from the Federal Government for non-compliance.
The cost for an individual practice to computerize is $60,000 – $100,000. (It cost my OB/GYN’s practice over $100,000 to computerize with EMR). Dr. Smith said Affordable Care “will be spending $40 billion in incentive payments to procure the Electronic Medical Records Programs to become computerized. In our region, only 20% of health care companies use EMR but out west 60% of health care companies use EMR.”
Dr. Smith suggested that government is “horrible at doing anything, but the Federal Government provides an infrastructure because the Federal Government can afford it!” (Well, maybe not now since the National Debt is $16 trillion).
According to Dr. Smith, the health care companies are able to choose their own EMR program. Eventually all the different programs will be able to talk to each other so Medicare patients can have access to their records where ever they travel. Eventually the Federal Government will have provide the infrastructure so that all the individual EMR programs can interact because of the high cost.
When I was publishing Kentuckiana HealthFitness (KHF) magazine we did a story about LouHIE. In 2007, a group of health care professionals were working on a local EMR project known as LouHIE. LouHIE was a private public partnership with health professionals along with the University of Louisville. LouHie was going to be the EMR used at University Hospital. But LouHIE never got launched and Dr. Smith said University Hospital will be using an EMR program called Epic EMR. He acknowledged that the Epic EMR program was an OK program but suggested other EMR programs might be better. I asked him about the StarPanel EMR which is an exceptional EMR program designed by Vanderbilt University. (We did a column about Vandy’s StarPanel EMR in KHF). But University Hospital may have chosen the Epic program because of its cost since the merger with KentuckyOne was dropped. One of the reasons University Hospital was looking for another health care partner was to help with the financial burdens of implementing all the Affordable Care’s new regulations.
Health Care & the Federal Government only Economic Drivers of the Economy
Dr. Smith acknowledged that Louisville’s “population is where we were in 1994 and economic growth is NOT growing. The economy grows when there is more money.” He said “health care and the Federal Government are the only 2 economic drivers in the US currently. With an aging population, health care will drive the economy for a very long time.” Louisville is positioning itself as an aging care mecca with Kindred Healthcare, Atria Senior Living, ResCare, Trilogy, and suppliers like PharMerica Corp and SHPS, Inc. As a result, GLI is projecting 5,500 new health care professional jobs related to aging care and the lifelong wellness industry in Louisville by 2018. Good news for Louisville.
Image: Kenneth Grossman, with Executive Image, and Ted Smith.
Barbara Day, M.S., R.D., C.N, is a registered dietitian who has been teaching healthy lifestyles strategies to consumers for over 35+ years. Barbara has a new health and wellness online magazine as well.
