Obama Forces Doctors to Report Patients Health Data to Feds

[Chris_]

http://www.publiusforum.com/2010/07/23/obama-forces-doctors-to-snitch-to-feds-on-patients-weight/

-By Warner Todd Huston

New federal regulations issued by Obama’s administration will require doctors to record their patient’s body mass index (BMI) ratio. No longer will your weight problems be a matter between you and your doctor. Thanks to Obama, now your doctor will be required by law to snitch to the feds on how fat you are.

Like most of what goes on in Washington, this new little regulation was stuck a bill otherwise wholly unconnected to healthcare, the stimulus billsection 301)

According to the government’s new HIT Standards (Health Information Technology), each patient’s BMI numbers will be recorded and must be available to the federal government on a national database exchange.


(e) Record and chart vital signs.

(1) Vital signs. Enable a user to electronically record, modify, and retrieve a patient’s vital signs including, at a minimum, the height, weight, blood pressure, temperature, and pulse.

(2) Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.

(3) Plot and display growth charts. Plot and electronically display, upon request, growth charts for patients 2-20 years old.

Naturally all these electronic health records will be under the thumb of yet another government agency that will “assure” that the records are being gathered and stored correctly and can be retrieved from the national database.

But of what use is a BMI reading? Many researchers and doctors now believe that the BMI system is not a reliable determinant of health problems. Some researchers now think that “BMI should be disregarded as a clinical and epidemiological measure of cardiovascular risk.”

And what use will the Obama administration make of this information? Will Obama use this info as another excuse for government spending? Of that you can be sure.
____________

doc

[rich_t]

 

[formerlurker]

Hold up here for a second.   Doctors are not federally licensed.   Unless they take federal funds, how does Congress dictate what they must report? 

What will happen is doctors dropping medicare/tricare at a faster pace than what is occurring now. 

[rich_t]

Hold up here for a second.   Doctors are not federally licensed.   Unless they take federal funds, how does Congress dictate what they must report?  

How many doctors dont take Medicare patients?

Sit back and watch that number grow in the next year or so.

[Carl]

How many doctors dont take Medicare patients?

Sit back and watch that number grow in the next year or so.

Health care rationing 101 is what it is called.

[formerlurker]

How many doctors dont take Medicare patients?

Sit back and watch that number grow in the next year or so.

A great deal of specialists do not take medicaid, medicare or tricare.   It really is going to get ugly for military dependents to find a doctor.    When we were in NY I could not find one pediatrician who took Tricare.  I had to pay up front, and then get partially reimbursed by Tricare a month or so later. 

Let me tell you how expensive vaccines are for twins.   

[docstew]

How is this not a violation of HIPAA?

[Boudicca]

How is this not a violation of HIPAA?

Good question.  I believe it could actually merit a court case, UNLIKE the lawsuit the bastids in the misadministration are leveling against Arizona.

[vesta111]

A great deal of specialists do not take medicaid, medicare or tricare.   It really is going to get ugly for military dependents to find a doctor.    When we were in NY I could not find one pediatrician who took Tricare.  I had to pay up front, and then get partially reimbursed by Tricare a month or so later. 

Let me tell you how expensive vaccines are for twins.   

Hold on here, what have i missed in the last 20 years.

From my birth to the birth of my 4 kids, we never saw a civilian doctor, except for a bandstand with my last pregnancy I was checked out by a military dentist, 1972.

So why are dependents now going to civilian doctors, WTF is going on and where has the military benefits to keep people in the the military reaping for just those benefits gone.??

[formerlurker]

Hold on here, what have i missed in the last 20 years.

From my birth to the birth of my 4 kids, we never saw a civilian doctor, except for a bandstand with my last pregnancy I was checked out by a military dentist, 1972.

So why are dependents now going to civilian doctors, WTF is going on and where has the military benefits to keep people in the the military reaping for just those benefits gone.??

Not all active duty personnel are assigned to active duty bases with military treatment facilities. 

[Mike220]

Not all active duty personnel are assigned to active duty bases with military treatment facilities. 

My first three years in I was at a unit like that, so I was enrolled in Tricare Prime Remote. I can't say it was horrible, but it was a lot better when I got transferred to Seattle with an on-base clinic for minor stuff and Madigan Army Medical Center 45 minutes down the road at Ft. Lewis. I didn't have to wait for appointments, while under TPR, it was usually a 2-3 week wait.

[DefiantSix]

I knew there was a reason I hadn't seen a doctor in the past 10 years unless I had something I knew I needed one to treat.  

(The biggest dust up my wife and I have had to date was when I had pneumonia and she wanted to drag me out of bed and down to the doctor's office to "get it checked out".  I knew what it was, and I knew there was nothing the doctor could really do for it, but she wouldn't take "no" for an answer so we went down and blew $20 of my hard-earned so that a "medical professional" could tell me what I already knew.)

[Mike220]

Simple. Don't allow them to take your height and weight.

Don't know if it would work, but you could try.

[Chris_]

That's really messed up.

I'm at a loss for words.  What's really in store for us with this information being given to the Feds?

[Chris_]

Simple. Don't allow them to take your height and weight.

Don't know if it would work, but you could try.

Just don't go to the doctor.

[Boudicca]

Just don't go to the doctor.

   I do believe you've hit the nail on the head; Obamacare equals Lack of Privacy equals Less Utilization of Health Care resources.  Then the Dems can claim the system is paying for itself; that works if not everyone uses it.  Of course, those who do use it will tend to be the abusers, namely those who are all for letting government take care of every aspect of their lives.

[Chris_]

The last time I went to the doctor was when I was pregnant.  Other then that, I stay home and self medicate with DayQuil or something of the sort.  Or I pop some Tylenol and take a nap until I feel better.  There is no need to go to a doctor and pay $20 to see someone when the medicine at the local drugstore is cheaper.

[BlueStateSaint]

I'm at a loss for words.  What's really in store for us with this information being given to the Feds?

"You're too fat to be treated cheaply.  Here's a pill--now go home."

[NHSparky]

  I do believe you've hit the nail on the head; Obamacare equals Lack of Privacy equals Less Utilization of Health Care resources.  Then the Dems can claim the system is paying for itself; that works if not everyone uses it.  Of course, those who do use it will tend to be the abusers, namely those who are all for letting government take care of every aspect of their lives.

Some of us don't have that choice.

[Ptarmigan]

How is this not a violation of HIPAA?

HIPAA laws very strict from what I know.