Gov. Matt Blunt began his statewide tour on Medicaid reform at a Jiffy Lube.
The point? Whether you take your car to a Jiffy Lube in Springfield, Mo. or Orlando, Fla., the shop will have the same information on your car. Body work. Oil changes. It's uniform information. And it makes it easier to diagnose a problem and fix it.
The Governor wants to do the same thing with healthcare, and Medicaid in particular. In effect, treating people as well as we treat our cars.
"It is unacceptable in the 21st century that Jiffy Lube is more technologically advanced than our health care system," said Senate President Mike Gibbons, who joined Blunt at the Springfield stop. "Paper kills and we must move to a system where technology is used to save live and save money."
Health Debit Cards
Sen. Gibbons said there's no reason why Missourians shouldn't be carrying around their healthcare history on debit cards. So in an emergency, all a person's medical history is in one up-to-date place . . . no paper involved. Swipe it like at ATM card, and you pull up previous accidents, medications, allergies, even the date of your last doctor's visit.
Gibbons said people that go to a "myriad of different providers for care" fill out similar but not uniform stacks of paperwork that detail medical history. This can lead to confusion and error when diagnosing problems.
"These everyday tools of society need to be used in healthcare," Gibbons said.
Waste, Fraud & Abuse
Sen. Charlie Shields said some of the interest in technology came from Oxford Healthcare officials in Springfield, after they testified before the Medicaid Reform Commission. Shields has the job of shepherding the Medicaid reform bill through the Senate. It's Senate Bill 577.
But Shields is convinced that technology, like the in-home telemonitors featured in this story, will help crack down on the infamous "waste, fraud and abuse."
"We know health information technology prevents waste, fraud and abuse," Shields said. "The technology piece is a huge component of eliminating fraud because we can figure out if a person is taking a prescription to 5 different pharmacies. Under the new system, you won't be able to do that," he said.
Shields said electronic medical records and e-prescribing will end up saving taxpayers money and patients lives. "The Institute of Medicine says up to 98,000 people die each year because of errors in paper medical records, and that is an outrage," Shields said.
Sen. Norma Champion also attended the Medicaid reform press conference at Oxford Healthcare. Sen. Champion praised Blunt, Gibbons and Shields for "great leadership," and said the new system would allow patients to get better service.
1 comment:
In stops across the state, Governor Blunt uses Jiffy Lube as an example of how electronic records are helpful in promoting preventive maintenance. The Governor’s analogy falls short for many low income Missourians. Jiffy Lube may have an electronic record for my car, but if I can’t afford to have preventive maintenance done, the electronic record doesn’t help me keep my car in good repair.
The same holds true for electronic records and other technological improvements in MO Healthnet. The eligibility requirements for MO Healthnet are so strict that almost all low-income working parents are excluded. It similarly excludes elderly and people with disabilities who are have incomes greater than $694 per month. Improved technology alone will not help them.
Lawmakers continue to focus on wellness, prevention and better technology as if these equate to health care reform. They are only one important part of the equation. The more critical factor is assuring that people with low incomes have access to health insurance so they can afford both preventive care and treatment when they need it.
Low-income people will have affordable health care only if they have affordable health insurance. Serious efforts to achieve health care reform will make this a priority as well as improving the health care delivery system.
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