Social Security Administration Launches E-Health Info Exchange 114
Lucas123 writes "In what could be the start of a national health information exchange system, the Social Security Administration became the first federal agency to go live with a public-private electronic health records information exchange that will cut wait time for 2.6 million Americans who apply for benefits each year by weeks or months. The electronic exchange runs on a database operated by a non-profit organization in Virginia and open-source software deployed at the Social Security Administration. 'The goal of the NHIN effort is to enable secure access to health care data and real-time information sharing among physicians, patients, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies and federal agencies ... regardless of location or the applications that are being used.'"
Re:Do not want (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Do not want (Score:4, Interesting)
A few comments on this:
1] Given the way records in private medical databases are protected (or rather, not protected), this system will at least have the sunshine of many eyes making sure its security, data loss prevention, and procedures to correct misinformation, is all up to date.
2] Invasion of medical privacy is only a major concern in the US because of the presently legal practice of insurance companies cherry-picking only the healthiest of people to insure. If the US had a national health care system like every other major first world nation, there would be little or no economic incentive to go sneaking peeks at people's medical records. So fix that instead.
3] This will both increase the quality and decrease the price of medical care. It is a step up.
4] Back to my point #2. This is one of the many kinds of efficiencies that are not dangerous only when you have a national medical plan. So long as we have economic incentives for doing bad things, those things will happen. Oh, but public-schools=socialism! libraries=socialism! public-health-care=socialism! It seems like the only thing that isn't socialism is covering the bad bets of right wing gamblers on Wall Street. All trillion dollars of it.
Re:Current disability queue times (Score:3, Interesting)
4 fucking years?
Are you serious? That's ridiculous to the point of being almost unbelievable. If I hadn't had to deal with a similar situation with my grandparents, I wouldn't have believed you.
In their case, it was resolved in just a couple months.
(which is also ridiculous)
From a government worker's perpective, what's the big deal? I mean, you go in day after day and do the same job. No reason to hurry, cause if you do then there's just more files going to be waiting for you. Just like the DMV. *sigh*
Re:True purpose (Score:4, Interesting)
line item opt out (Score:3, Interesting)
Has anyone ever anywhere suggested a line item opt out?
I know there are people out there who feel the need to keep health secrets. Probably they are clinically paranoid, but that's not the issue I'm discussing here (although I will make fun of them anyway).
Why not have a line item opt out?
Normal or highly extroverted people would not opt out of any line item because they don't care. Most old people I know seem to greatly enjoy telling everyone about their operations and such, so the old people's unwillingness to learn something new would be no problem.
People whom in my opinion are unbalanced would opt out of absolutely every line. And that's perfectly OK. Of course if a parent opts out a line for their kids stating they are allergic to bee stings, and the kid dies of a bee sting, who gets the blame?
Personally I couldn't care less if everyone on slashdot learns I am allergic to amoxocilian and I had a mild bout of pneumonia back in 04 that was cured in about 4 hours with a three pack of zithromycin. But IF I had something to hide, I'd just log in and click "hide" and away it goes like it never happened.
Doesn't seem like much of a technological challenge.
Another interesting option would be a nationwide registry of stuff you'd WANT to publicize, like allergies. Sign a release form and the dr will post it. That seems like a blindingly good idea in general.
Learn from the past: GJXDM, NIEM, N-DEX (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Do not want (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not saying that having a national medical database is necessarily a good thing, but it's immeasurably better than having individual state repositories.
I tend to agree, but I think you have a different definition of 'immeasurably' - my definition is "not measurable" because there ain't nothing there.
They say Mussolini made the trains run on time.
I think that this sort of information does not need to be networked. Sure standardization of formats is good, but networking is not. Put it on a usb fob that hangs off your keyring and password protect it.
Based on gut instinct alone, I believe that the number of people who will be unconscious in an emergency situation and without any family member available to provide the password for the fob would be at least an order of magnitude smaller, probably 2 orders, than the number of people who will suffer ill consequences from the abuse of their private data via illegitimate network access. All it will take is one big swipe of an entire hospital's worth of patient history for a decade or so to bring the numbers into line with my gut here.
Re:Pill Heads (Score:3, Interesting)
Another problem is the "tax base" thingy that effectively makes FICA one of the most regressive taxes in existence.
Taking a smaller slice of a bigger pie would make things fairer.
But oh noes, it would make the rich fatcats actually notice how much they are paying.
Get rid of the stupid cap and make sure the rich chip in their two cents. If you're freaking rich, a few thousand dollars in SS taxes will be to you what a handful of change is to the average joe.
In fact, if we got rid of the cap and made SS taxes a mere 1 percent of your income, I would propose that there would be a net gain.
Open Source? (Score:2, Interesting)
I can find no source, open or otherwise.
I can also find no mention of the standards that are being used.