I thought it would be fun to look at a bunch of Healthcare IT Superlatives (best, scariest, cutest, smartest, funniest, etc etc etc). I imagine this will be a series of blog posts that never stops. If you’d like to see me write about a specific healthcare IT superlative, let me know in the comments or on my Contact Us page. I always like to cater to readers. Then, I at least no one person will find the post useful. Although, if one person finds it useful, it’s very likely that thousands of others are interested as well.
The first Healthcare IT Superlative we’ll consider is: Scariest Health IT Regulation
This is a challenging topic since healthcare is so burdened by regulation. I’m going to use a pretty broad interpretation of what I’d consider a healthcare IT regulation, but I’ll admit that I’m not as familiar with the medical device or pharma industry regulation. If you have experience in either of those, I’d love to hear what regulations in those industries is the scariest regulation.
When I think about all the various healthcare IT regulations, I have to narrow the scope down to the regulations that have the most over arching reach. That basically leaves me with ACO/Value Based Reimbursement, Meaningful Use, and HIPAA. Certainly there are plenty more that could be listed, but it’s not as scary for me if they aren’t large regulations that impact the majority of the healthcare system.
Of all of these, I’m most scared of ACO/Value Based Reimbursement. The worst part of any regulation is ambiguity. ACO and value based reimbursement is so vague right now that I don’t think anyone know where it will really end up going. That’s really scary for me and is likely scary for most healthcare organizations. It’s really hard to plan for something that’s vague and ambiguous.
Furthermore, the move to value based reimbursement and ACOs is likely going to have the biggest economic impact on healthcare. This doesn’t mean that every doctor and healthcare organization is going to lose when it comes to value based reimbursement. Definitely not. There are going to be a bunch of winners and losers. Some will really benefit from ACOs and some will suffer. However, my gut tells me that there’s going to be more losers than winners. That’s pretty scary to consider with all the other challenging dynamics at plat in healthcare today.
There you have it. What healthcare regulations are scaring you the most? Which regulations keep you up at night? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.