Word: patient
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...makes money in ways like this, using cleverly designed "thought bins" that are put into the program by profit-maximizing, code-savvy administrators. EMR can inject more higher-paying codes into our patient contact and squeeze that much more money out of it - quite innocently too. It is, after all, a computer forcing these choices...
...practice can bill more and improve its bottom line, even after paying the billing company for its services, which run 6 to 10 percent of gross. The insurers got computers so the doctors are getting them too. It's an arms race - though, unfortunately one in which good patient care is watching from the sidelines. (Read "The e-Health Revolution...
...this tends to be the message, all too often the mechanism is much simpler. Computerized medicine means both more information - and less medicine. Less therapy, less surgery and less testing too. That's how it saves money. A variety of promising terms describe it - terms like targeted treatment, algorithmic patient-care, fiscally responsible medicine and evidence-based practice - but for doctors treating patients, one word describes how computerized records save money. Denial...
...aren't bad enough to "justify" expensive tests or treatments, (according to sources chosen by - you guessed it - insurance companies) the computer tells everyone, immediately, "you're going to eat this." Might this eliminate unnecessary testing and save money? Sure. But who determines what is necessary? Who should a patient trust to make her medical decisions? Can the government or an insurance company be as good an advocate as her doctor...
Doctors live with denials, some of them dangerous. I've ordered MRI's on hospitalized patients that somehow never got done, physical therapy and medication never delivered, because of "unmet requirements" picked up when codes are scanned. When the white blood count isn't high enough to "justify" the hospitalization for IV antibiotics, the physician whose judgment says "this patient is sick and belongs in the hospital" is told his services as well as the hospitalization will not be paid for. When a doctor is convinced a test or treatment is needed, (and his patient doesn't have the money...