Who is Judy Faulkner? Chances are, you don't know her -- but her politically connected, taxpayer-subsidized electronic medical records company may very well know you. Top Obama donor and billionaire Faulkner is founder and CEO of Epic Systems, which will soon store almost half of all Americans' health information.
If the crony odor and the potential for abuse that this "epic" arrangement poses don't chill your bones, you ain't paying attention.
As I first noted last year before the IRS witch hunts and DOJ journalist snooping scandals broke out, Obama's federal electronic medical records (EMR) mandate is government malpractice at work. The stimulus law provided a whopping $19 billion in "incentives" (read: subsidies) to force hospitals and medical professionals into converting from paper to electronic record-keeping systems. Penalties kick in next year for any provider who fails to comply with the one-size-fits-all edict.
Obamacare bureaucrats claimed the government's EMR mandate would save money and modernize health care. As of December 2012, $4 billion had already gone out to 82,535 professionals and 1,474 hospitals; a total of $6 billion will be doled out by 2016. What have taxpayers and health care consumers received in return from this boondoggle? After hyping the alleged benefits for nearly a decade, the RAND Corporation finally admitted in January that its cost-savings predictions of $81 billion a year -- used repeatedly to support the Obama EMR mandate -- were, um, grossly overstated.
Among many factors, the researchers blamed "lack of interoperability" of records systems for the failure to bring down costs. And that is a funny thing, because it brings us right back to Faulkner and her well-connected company. You see, Epic Systems -- the dominant EMR giant in America -- is notorious for its lack of interoperability. Faulkner's closed-end system represents antiquated, hard drive-dependent software firms that refuse to share data with doctors and hospitals using alternative platforms. Health IT analyst John Moore of Chilmark Research, echoing many industry observers, wrote in April that Epic "will ultimately hinder health care organizations' ability to rapidly innovate."
Question: If these subsidized data-sharing systems aren't built to share data to improve health outcomes, why exactly are we subsidizing them? And what exactly are companies like Faulkner's doing with this enhanced power to consolidate and control Americans' private health information? It's a recipe for exactly the kind of abuse that's at the heart of the IRS and DOJ scandals.
As I reported previously, a little-noticed HHS Inspector General's report issued last fall exposed how no one is actually verifying whether the transition from paper to electronic is improving patient outcomes and health services. No one is actually guarding against GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). No one is checking whether recipients of the EMR incentives are receiving money redundantly (e.g., raking in payments when they've already converted to electronic records). And no one is actually protecting private data from fraud, theft or exploitation.
But while health IT experts and concerned citizens balk, money talks. Epic employees donated nearly $1 million to political parties and candidates between 1995 and 2012 -- 82 percent of it to Democrats. The company's top 10 PAC recipients are all Democratic or left-wing outfits, from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (nearly $230,000) to the DNC Services Corporation (nearly $175,000) and the America's Families First Action Fund Democratic super-PAC ($150,000). The New York Times reported in February that Epic and other large firms spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for the Obama EMR "giveaway."
Brandon Glenn of Medical Economics observes "it's not a coincidence" that Epic's sales "have been skyrocketing in recent years, up to $1.2 billion in 2011, double what they were four years prior."
It's also no coincidence, as a famous Democratic presidential candidate once railed, that the deepest-pocketed donors "are often granted the greatest access, and access is power in Washington." That same candidate, Barack Obama, named billionaire Democratic donor Faulkner as the only industry representative on the federal panel overseeing the $19 billion EMR "incentives" program from which her company benefits grandly.
The foxes are guarding the Obamacare henhouse. The IRS vultures are circling overhead. The shadow of tyranny and the stench of corruption are unmistakable. If you see something, say something. BOLO is our watchword.
Thank God, seniors won't have to worry about that happening.
She said-- "After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve.There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won't be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go."
You know that, I know that, low info voters don't know that. Or care.
Do you think there would be any preferential treatment depending on whether there is a 'D' or an 'R' after your name?
Nahhhhhhh, the government would never play politics with your life.
Another example of profiling that should not get lost in the flood of such.
But then again, the list of obama abuses of power is too long to keep a track of.
What I do not understand is why the House doesn't simply defund the monstrosity. Funding constitutionally must begin in the House.
Starve the beast and it eventually dies.
Then we will hear it was just one or two unknown rogue records keepers. Then 4. Then the DC office and California office, then the Democrats in charge...
In the end the "republicans" won't want to believe any of it.
They won't do much. They will keep accepting the new lefty lie, the one reformed from the former lie that was exposed, pretending the new one is " where the buck really stops".
Jokes from Dems around healthcare about post-aborting Republicans won't be understood, even though they went on for years. Any complaining Republicans will be called braindead panelists.
Great job America !
her job is to be an enforcer.....
to make sure everyone either complies with obamacare, pays the fines or goes to jail....
Ovomits "revenge" statement is in line with Valerie Jarret, Obamas 'top adviser' and (an admitted Communist) Threatens the American people.
She said-- "After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve.There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won't be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go."