Time Magazine Articles Examine Electronic Health Records, Financial Burden of Medical Bills

• Electronic health records: Expanding the use of EHRs, touted by President Obama and many others as a means to improve health care and control costs, would provide doctors with "advantages" but many physicians are concerned that "the greatest cost will be in the quality of medicine [they] practice," Time Magazine reports. While U.S. physicians have "not been enemies of the digital revolution," many are "forced to use computerized orders" or risk being barred from hospitals, Time reports. Among the problems doctors see with EHRs is that electronic records allow for less specificity -- such as preventing a doctor from writing a personal message to a nurse or drawing a diagram of how a patient should be positioned -- and the likelihood that EHRs will compromise patients' privacy, according to Time. The increasing use of computerized data would most likely result in "more information -- and less medicine," Time reports, as insurers would be able to "greatly increase" denials of tests and treatments ordered by doctors. Information technology also facilitates comparative effectiveness efforts, which could be detrimental to those who would benefit more from treatments deemed more expensive and no more effective for the general population. According to Time, many doctors "wince whenever electronic medical records are held up as some kind of silver bullet" (Haig, Time, 3/5).
  
  
• Medical bills: Time examines the financial strain medical bills can have on some U.S. residents. The piece discusses cases of several patients whose coverage, or lack of coverage, resulted in their illness leading to personal finance problems. According to Time, individuals who become seriously ill can lose both their job and their health insurance, forcing them to pay their own medical bills. Individuals cannot negotiate with health care providers for the type of discounts obtained by health insurers, Time reports. According to Time, this situation introduces the "paradox of medical costs" where "people who can least afford them -- the uninsured -- end up being charged the most" (Tumulty, Time, 3/5).