Letters to the Editor - Sept. 17, 2007

Untangle SCHIP from the needed Medicare pay increase for physicians

Regarding "Fate of Medicare pay raise hinges on contentious SCHIP negotiations" (AMNews, Aug. 20): It is distressing that the Democratic Congress feels it can bribe physicians to accept another step towards socialized medicine in America by including a small increase in physician pay in their State Children's Health Insurance Program bill proposal.

This small increase is an insult to the dedicated providers of care to the recipients of government-funded health care and doesn't nearly cover costs of providing this care.

There is nothing good for American medicine in this bill, and the AMA should not support it just so we don't lose more money.

Congress can choose to fix the flawed formula for physician reimbursement immediately and independent of this piece of legislation.

Failure to fix the flawed formula will not only harm access to care by the recipients of government-funded health care but will contribute to the decline in quality of all of American medicine secondary to increased socialization.

--Robert J. Cox, MD, Barnesville, Ga.

Back to top.

EMRs are not designed now with human factors in mind

Regarding "EMRs don't guarantee quality care: 50,000 patient records reviewed" (AMNews, Aug. 13): Until recently it has almost been blasphemy to suggest a possible negative impact of health information technology on patient safety, yet I suspect that the available electronic medical records decrease error in some ways, and increase error in others.

It may be that we haven't yet developed tools sophisticated enough to detect those errors, but we cannot assume such errors don't exist. I look forward to the day when the EMR has dense display of information, is quick and intuitive to navigate, and has one-click access to action or second-priority information -- in short, when a human-factors perspective is fully integrated into HIT design. Until then, we are indeed still waiting for Godot.

--Christine A. Sinsky, MD, Dubuque, Iowa

Back to top.