Trending issues in medicine 2015 – #2 Regulations

“If you make ten thou­sand reg­u­la­tions you destroy all respect for the law.” – Winston Churchill 2015 medicine suffers from a plague of regulations.  Having graduated from medical school 40 years ago, the difference that these regulations make is palpable and frustrating. Here is my list, and I strongly encourage comments of regulations that I have omitted. Meaningful use – I wrote about these regulations yesterday.  Ask physicians and they will confirm that meaningful use requirements have made EHRs slower.  If physicians thought that the requirements truly led to better care, then we could have a debate, but I hear and read a consensus that the regulations do not address quality. Device approvals – not only are the forms a major annoyance, but the device companies advertise constantly.  Once the patient hears that Medicare will pay for … (a scooter, a different glucometer, etc) they bring in a form.   These forms drive many physicians just a bit crazy. Prior authorization – once we determine that the patient needs a specific test, apparently someone with minimal medical experience sits in an office and challenges our clinical judgment.  These authorizations take time and energy (and the time is not compensated). Billing requirements – as I wrote yesterday, billing requirements lead to virtually indecipherable notes.   We record history and physical information that is meaningless in most follow-up visits (either outpati...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs