4 ms·

I suspect most of the $700 billion is wasted because of insurance companies - not paperwork.

• bzalasky 13y ago
  This is absolutely at the root of the problem. Getting rid of the paperwork will just increase their bottom line.
• clavalle 13y ago
  I often wonder how much programmer time has been spent munging data into a form that insurance companies' archaic systems find palatable?
  • daigoba66 13y ago
    Not a whole lot I think. Technically speaking they are rather straightforward and easy-to-program transaction specs. And it's only recently that electronic health insurance transactions have been mandated. The problem is actually in the broader domain of healthcare billing and "coding", a problem which software can facilitate but probably not solve. In my opinion anyway.
    • rficcaglia 13y ago
      billing and coding is not a technical problem, per se. many public domain coding schemes exist, and there are lookup tables to map across each. lots of open source tools to help. the problem is redundant inefficient systems subsidized by your tax dollars. at hospitals i have seen literally 5 overlapping emr systems for a given service that require MDs to cut and paste data that is inaccurate, stale, and irrelevant to the context of the patient encounter. then they print out a pdf and mark it up with pen. THAT is the real record they use since the emr is so bad emrs were designed by programmers, not by clinical users. very poor interfaces. 10 clicks just to do anything. need a new feature? 2015 release is just around the corner. too bad we just spent billions of US tax dollars subsidizing emr systems that are DOA (many physicians i know put their records on box or google docs, hipaa be damned - just to get their work done!)