It is a great question with no sure answer. Times are tough as they say. Everything is “on the table” when it comes to the government and its budget and debt. If it is about health care you bet it won’t be safe. But this question does seem to bring out a kumbaya you don’t see much in Washington these days. While at the MGMA conference, I asked Farzad Mostashari the question. Carol caught up with former Gov. Ernie Fletcher on the exhibit floor and asked him the question as well.
It is a great question with no sure answer. Times are tough as they say. Everything is “on the table” when it comes to the government and its budget and debt. If it is about health care you bet it won’t be safe. But this question does seem to bring out a kumbaya you don’t see much in Washington these days. While at the MGMA conference, I asked Farzad Mostashari the question. Carol caught up with former Gov. Ernie Fletcher on the exhibit floor and asked him the question as well. Here is what they had to say.
Dr. Ernie Fletcher, the former Governor of Kentucky is now the founder and CEO of Alton Healthcare. Carol met him in their booth at the conference. You can’t get better insight to a State’s Medicaid challenges than a Governor! But what about the HITECH money? Here is his answer.
“Several months ago I was asked along with Deval Patrick of Massachusetts to testify in front of the senate finance committee regarding health care expenditures, specifically Medicaid expenditures in states. We had done a lot of Medicaid reform in Kentucky which is why they were interested.
To affect that IT is an essential part because you have to be able to connect and coordinate care. So the push to have health IT become a greater part of managed health care is going to continue. The expenditures for HITECH may be reduced slightly but that total expenditure as part of health care is really inconsequential to the whole of the national debt and yet the savings realized with IT and EHR implementations can be tremendous.”
So are we doing enough for the money to be there tomorrow?
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