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You have definitely heard much about Health Information Technology lately with numerous politicians and organization advocating for the introduction of a whole nation-wide Health IT system. While it sure sounds very progressive not everyone understands what it is all about and what are the benefits of introducing such a system for separate individuals. Do not worry, this is the place to find about more about Health IT!

What Health Information Technology is all about?

Health Information Technology is simply a term, which popularly denotes the concept of “electronic medical records”. This is the concept of storing all the data you have in a typical medical record in electronic form with much easier and wider accessibility for medical staff to that information as compared to traditional paper records.

What benefits does Health Information Technology provide?

Health IT is believed to improve the speed and quality of healthcare services, minimizing potential risks of having little information on the patient. It is especially useful when the person visits more than one doctor and has more health concerns. For instance, visiting your primary care physician and another specialist will be much more effective as both will have access to the same information being aware of the prescribed drugs and treatments that the other has indicated. This will minimize the chance of one doctor prescribing drugs that will interact negatively with those prescribed by another doctor, a situation which is quite common these days. In that way doctors will be much more efficient when working with complex cases. Another great example is a person injured in an accident and requiring emergency healthcare. By having an electronic database of medical records doctors will be able to help the person much faster and more efficiently. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s much debate around the healthcare system reform proposed by President Barack Obama. And while there are many people who protest against it, and those who support it, it is important to know what it is all about in the first place. Here is a short overview of the reform, which is comprised of three essential parts:

1. Assure all American citizens with access to comprehensive and affordable health coverage

The main features of this part are:

• New Public National Health Plan, which will be very close to the current health coverage provided to federal employees. The main difference is that the new plans will be available to all US citizens for a reasonable price no matter of their financial situation. Deductibles and co-payments will be reduced to minimum, while low-income persons will have the possibility to use additional subsidies.
• National Health Insurance Exchange, which will allow US citizens to look for private health plans. It will set regulations on private insurance providers in order to make sure that private plans are not too different form public ones.
• New business mandate requiring national enterprises to pay for the Public National Health Plan.
• Individual mandate aimed specifically at children.
• More support provided to existing programs like Medicaid and SCHIP.

2. Improve the quality of healthcare services and lower their costs

This initiative presumes federal financial assistance for improving the quality of the services and lowering the costs, with additional assistance to enterprises that cover high-risk employees. Read the rest of this entry »

The world is often a confusing place and nowhere is the confusion likely to be so complete as in the tax system. Here we have the best brains in the Government taking on the best brains in the private sector. The Government wants the maximum tax take. The private sector wants to arrange things so that no one with money ever has to pay any tax. Somewhere in the middle the two world-views collide and, usually, some tax is paid. Anyway, when President Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law, some of the largest employers in the US let out a collective sigh of pain. As an example, Caterpillar is the world’s largest manufacturer of excavators and bulldozers. The day after the President’s signature, Caterpillar announced it was taking a charge of $100 million to earnings over an expected loss of tax benefits. A number of other influential corporations have also made allowances in their accounts. The reason is that the healthcare reform ended a tax break given to cover the cost of supplying drugs to early retirees. Read the rest of this entry »