I haven’t really commented in the past about Tom Daschle’s appointment as HHS Secretary.  However, today it was announced that Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name from being HHS secretary.  I don’t know Tom Daschle that well, but from what I’ve read, it seems like Tom Daschle would have been more focused on implementing changes too health care not related to IT.  This guest post by Tom Daschle on the Huffington Post seems to indicate this feeling I have.

One thing is certain, it’s quite shameful that Tom Daschle could somehow have missed $128,203 in additional tax and $11,964 in interest.  Considering the amount of money Obama is planning on investing in EMR, I’m not sure I would have wanted Daschle involved in the process.

Of course, you have to wonder if there exists a politician that isn’t tainted in some serious way or another.  Whoever Obama appoints as HHS secretary, I hope it’s someone who will invest appropriately in HIT.  I also hope they’re as transparent and open as past HHS secretary Mike Leavitt was in his blog.

UPDATE:

I just found this interesting set of quotes and media put together by Alborg about Daschle and various special interests that he might have had.

I’m so happy that Daschle was forced to resign. He was one of the major HIMSS representatives on Obama’s team. From the HIIMSS website:

“HIMSS has arranged for members to personally add their support for Senator Tom Daschle to be confirmed as the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “

In fact, he was paid off by HIMSS members, including speaking fees from Misys Healthcare Systems ($12,000) and GE Healthcare ($12,000) on 8/2008. Quote from article “Tax Cheat Daschle Favors Federal Reserve for Health“:

“GE Healthcare, one of several healthcare companies that paid Daschle tens of thousands of dollars to speak to their organizations, stands to profit if Daschle is confirmed and pursues Obama’s plan for more federal involvement in the health care field. Indeed, a part of the Obama plan, which is a specialty of GE Healthcare, is the electronic processing of medical records.”

Another quote from the recent media:

“While the tax cheating is getting some attention from the media, the $220,000 in speaking fees that Daschle collected from special interests in the health care field seems to be getting more coverage because of the fact, as noted by Kenneth P. Vogel of Politico.com, that many of these firms “stand to gain or lose millions of dollars from the work he would do once confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services.” A front-page headline in the Washington Post, “Health Sector Enriched Daschle,” captures the obvious conflict of interest problem for the nominee. One of those firms is GE Healthcare, but chances are you won’t hear much about it from GE’s media properties…”

About Dashle’s book which includes HIT references:

“Daschle’s book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis,” published in early 2008, notes that “we are years, if not decades, behind European nations in harnessing health care information technology’s potential.” It calls for removing much health care policy-making from the political arena but states that at the same time the executive branch of the federal government should promote creation of an IT infrastructure for health information.”

The only question I still have is whether anyone exists that isn’t as bad or worse than Daschle.  At least maybe his replacement will know how to file his taxes.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article on electronic medical records, they talk about Allscripts’ CEO’s take on the governments planned $20 billion investment in EMR.  Here’s a portion of the article:

Glen Tullman, chief executive of the health IT outfit Allscripts-Misys Healthcare and an advisor to the Obama campaign on health information technology issues, argues that that any legislation should first help doctors buy and install electronic medical records, then give them financial incentives to actually use them in a way that could reduce waste and improve care. “That one-two punch would dramatically change the adoption rate for physicians,” he said in an interview with the Health Blog.

I’ve talked about Obama EMR many times before on this blog and over the next 6 months I expect I’ll talk about it a lot more.  This could be the most significant change in health care IT that we’ve ever seen.

However, it should scare all of us that Obama’s health information technology advisor is the CEO of Allscripts-Misys Healthcare any EMR vendor.  I know Obama’s from Chicago, but could this be a more blatant conflict of interest?  Why not call in the tobacco companies to see if they think that smoking will help improve the condition of America.  I’m pretty sure I know there answer.  Why would an EMR company be any different?

Even more interesting is this quote from the same Wall Street Journal article on EMR:

He[Glen Tullman] points to the success of a similar incentive program, courtesy of Medicare, to get more doctors to use electronic prescriptions — Allscripts’ other big business besides electronic health records. 

I just wanted to thank Glen Tullman for pointing out that not only does he have a huge conflict of interest in regards to EMR adoption, but he’s also had success influencing other Medicare legislation for which he would be even more biased (Allscripts being the most widely used e-prescribing software).  This sure doesn’t sound like the CHANGE that Obama’s been talking about.  Sounds like business as usual to me.

I can understand why Obama would want to talk to some of the main EMR vendors out there.  It would be interesting and insightful to hear their biased point of view.  However, I’m talking about a discussion with these EMR vendors.  I’m not talking about having them as an advisor to Obama.  Are there really no unbiased consultants that can inform Obama on the challenges of EMR implementation?  There has to be something better.

I just think that Obama and the US governemnt don’t have anyone telling him the true realities associated with EMR implementations.  Nothing proves this more than the idea that the government will probably use CCHIT certified EMR as a criteria for who will get some of the $20 billion allocated to healthcare in the economic stimulus package.

The crazy part is I feel like I shouldn’t blame Obama for these decisions.  I hope and think that he’s trying to make the best decisions he possibly can with the limited information he’s receiving on the subject.  Does anyone have Obama’s blackberry number?  I’d like to send him a short message with my thoughts on his proposed investment in EMR.

Thinking along those lines, I think I might send a tweet to John Culberson, Congressman from Texas.  Talk about someone who’s really trying to listen to the people and have an open dialog about subjects.  I’ll let you know how that goes and if he even cares about electronic medical records.