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BUSINESS OF
MEDICINE
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would improve quality and avoid duplication of tests and pro- administrative layers to comply with ACA provisions. They
cedures. The problem is that EHRs are not good yet! The soft- also said the law is costing patients more: 51 percent of patients
ware isn’t to the stage that it needs to be and as a result these delay routine screenings because of the cost of high-deductible
records remain a thorn in many doctor-patient relationships. It plans associated with ACA.
impacts the time with the patients, and it takes extra time to
enter data. Many providers have spent hundreds of thousands Fifty-nine percent of physicians responding to the survey said
of dollars to implement an EHR system that doesn’t connect the positive effects of the ACA do not outweigh the negative ef-
with other systems in hospitals and elsewhere. It is a good thing fects when it comes to their medical practice. About 23 percent
the government is realizing that it needs to slow down imple- of providers said they were planning to retire, or thinking of re-
mentation, and the emphasis needs to be on “reliability, safety tiring, or becoming part-time locum tenens contract employees
and liability,” according to an article by Jayne O’Donnell, and in 2015, and 90 percent attribute this decision to the ACA.
Laura Ungar in USA Today May 26.
So it is difficult to say who the “winner” is with respect to Oba-
IMPACT ON PROVIDERS macare when it comes to the patient or provider. I believe we can
In a June 26 article by Tamara Rosin, additional impacts on afford care for all, but I am not sure I could say that the ACA is
the best means to that end.
the providers of care as a result of the ACA are identified. In a
Jackson Healthcare survey of 1,804 physicians across the United Joseph P. Gonzales is a specialist master with De-
States, it was identified that many physicians believe the ACA loitte Consulting, LLP. An adjunct faculty with the
is driving up the cost of healthcare. Sixty-one percent reported University of Texas San Antonio, he teaches in the
an increase in overhead costs for items such as EHRs and other MBA program, business of healthcare track.
36 San Antonio Medicine • September 2015
