Wal-Mart Plans to Market Digital Health Records System

[Emit]

Source: NYT

Wal-Mart Stores is striding into the market for electronic health records, seeking to bring the technology into the mainstream for physicians in small offices, where most of America’s doctors practice medicine.

~snip~

The company plans to team its Sam’s Club division with Dell for computers and eClinicalWorks, a fast-growing private company, for software. Wal-Mart says its package deal of hardware, software, installation, maintenance and training will make the technology more accessible and affordable, undercutting rival health information technology suppliers by as much as half.

“We’re a high-volume, low-cost company,” said Marcus Osborne, senior director of health care business development at Wal-Mart. “And I would argue that mentality is sorely lacking in the health care industry.”

The Sam’s Club offering, to be made available this spring, will be under $25,000 for the first physician in a practice, and about $10,000 for each additional doctor. After the installation and training, the continuing annual costs for maintenance and support will be $4,000 to $6,500 a year, the company estimates.

Wal-Mart says it had been exploring the opportunity in health information technology long before the recent presidential election. About 200,000 health care providers, mostly doctors, are among Sam Club’s 47 million members. And the company’s research showed the technology was becoming less costly and rising interest among small physician practices, according to Todd Matherly, vice president of health and wellness at Sam’s Club.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/business/11record.html?ref=business

[Auggie]

1. Wal-Mart and my medical data... that's so reassuring.

:sarcasm:

[JJ]

2. My thoughts exactly

I want Wal-Mart and their mentality nowhere near anything I value.

[Psephos]

10. Far, far better to trust highly competent and compassionate government bureaucrats

Who, by the way, could never be influenced or corrupted by political pressures.

:sarcasm:

Here's who I trust with my medical records:

ME

[Abq_Sarah]

14. Exactly!

The government does need to control or have any access to my medical records. If they are, by chance, needed by another doctor, either I or an immediate family member can authorize MY doctor release them. I hate the idea of a centralized system. There is far too much room for abuse and there would be abuse.

[silverojo]

16. I agree

That's one issue where I'm TOTALLY against Obama. We do NOT need records in the hands of anyone else but our own doctors.

As for his oft-repeated bullshit of "If you're in an accident, the records will be immediately available," I have one reply:

THAT'S WHY PEOPLE CARRY MEDICAL EMERGENCY CARDS FOR EMERGENCY PERSONNEL TO FIND!!!

[madmom]

3. So let's send it to China instead.

[dflprincess]

20. You think Walmart won't have it done there or in India? (eom)

[Ilsa]

4. Shouldn't there be a standard software for this industry

so that data is more easily electronically shared?

I don't know what I'm talking about. Really. That's why I'm asking.

[jmowreader]

6. Very much so

[Dumak]

21. Yeah, there is no reason why the data shouldn't be stored centrally,

but encrypted so that only the patient has access to it, but can hand over access to his doctor. Switching doctors would be much easier this way.

That's one reason why we need a Federal ID - to serve as a key for accessing medical records. There should also be a separate medical ID card, that would also be required to decrypt the information, but the medical ID card would reference the Federal ID card, which points to all the encrypted information (not just medical)

Texas right now is coming up with a perverted form of voter ID to make it more difficult to vote. Other red states will do the same if we don't head this off with a Federal ID / voter card. By default, everyone with a federal voter card could vote, unless the card indicates otherwise (felon, etc). It may seem illegal to force the use of such a system, but it could be done by providing benefits to states which choose to opt in.

[jmowreader]

5. The main problem I see with this isn't lack of privacy...

it's that you KNOW there's going to be an e-prescribing system on it...one that will default to Walmart or Sam's Club (depending on where the physician practices) as the pharmacy provider.

I think it's highly unethical for Walmart to do this.

[OhioChick]

7. How long before personal medical records are sold off to insurance companies?

Everyone will get denied due to pre-existing conditions such as the cold or flu.

[Jambalaya]

9. BINGO!

Executive Vice President of Wal-Mart’s U.S. Stores, Eduardo Castro-Wright has now also been named to the board of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Wal-Mart has consistently come under fire for its life insurance policies, namely a “dead peasant” policy where the company stands to profit when low-level employees die. Since Castro-Wright surely can’t be taking this new position for the employees’ benefit, what could he possibly be doing with his time on the MetLife board?

MetLife names 2 to board


Insurer MetLife Inc. on Wednesday said it named the CEO of Wal-Mart Stores USA and the CEO of Tupelo Capital Management to its board of directors, effective Monday.
more stories like this

Eduardo Castro-Wright, 53, is the president and chief executive of the U.S. division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer_____________February 28,2008

[glinda]

12. You need to email this to Maddow and also to Obama's staff. This is important

because I do think that originally from what I understood is that this was not to become some sort of "marketed" business. They are trying to usurp the Health Care progress/talks already. Bastards.

[glinda]

13. And yes...it will go to China most likely.

[primavera]

19. And did you notice that Mal Wart is teaming up with Dell on this project?

The most right-wing conservative of the computer companies out there?

[crikkett]

17. faster than you can type the words

but your insurance company already knows your medical history, the part they pay for anyway.

[Rider Haggard]

8. Gee, let's see. Trust the Government or WalMart with my health?

Sorry, I'll go non-profit in this area. At least the government is supposed to have some sort of recourse other than "don't shop here if you don't like it."

Things here are getting stranger and stranger.

[lucretia54]

11. One stop and we're done...

Next, we will all be going to Wal-Mart to have that chip installed in our foreheads....Noooooooo!

[hunter]

15. These systems are already available off-the-shelf.

http://www.tekvet.com

An Early Warning System for Livestock Health

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Until now, this method was the only reasonable means available for finding sick animals and continues to be practiced today.

However, with today's difficult to treat diseases such as BRD (Bovine Respiratory Disease), BVD (Bovine Virus Diarrhea), Foot-and-Mouth Disease, and other known diseases that can quickly infect herds on an epidemic scale, it is now paramount to have rapid, real-time reporting of large-scale disease outbreaks, as well as a more efficient way to track the health condition of individual animals.

Click Here To Learn More...

[madrchsod]

18. all my medical records are digitalized

if i remember correctly they are on a microshit program.