Medicare Y2K Readiness Questioned

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Medicare Y2K Readiness Questioned

By JIM ABRAMS

.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers and health care experts said Monday they were concerned that doctors, hospitals and other Medicare health insurance providers will not be prepared to handle the Y2K computer problem.

``The outlook is alarming,'' said Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif., chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee monitoring the year 2000 computer issue. As of last week, he said, less than 2 percent of the 230,000 hospitals, nursing homes, doctors and other health care providers who submit claims to Medicare had tested their computer systems with Medicare contractors.

Gary Christoph, chief information officer for the Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees the Medicare program, told Horn's panel that the HCFA has fixed its internal computer systems and sees no interruptions from its end in servicing the 39 million senior citizens eligible for Medicare.

But he agreed that ``we now see our greatest risk to the program as the uncertainties in the readiness of our partners; namely, our Medicare providers.''

What has worried those monitoring the health care industry is the low level of response to surveys seeking information from doctors and hospitals about Y2K compliance, and how few of those responding have actually tested to ensure their computers are ready for the turn of the century.

Until tests are carried out, said Joel Willemssen of the General Accounting Office, the investigative wing of Congress, ``the ability of these entities to process Medicare claims in a future date environment is unknown.''

Christoph said the HCFA is carrying out an extensive outreach program involving an 800-number, a Web site (www.hcfa.gov/y2k), year 2000 ``jump start kits'' and mailings to its 1.1 million Medicare providers.

He said all Medicare managed care organizations are required to certify that their systems will perform into the new millennium, but reviews of the contingency plans for national chains indicate that while 50 percent are reasonable or in need of minor improvements, the other 50 percent need major improvements.

The nearly 7 million in Medicare HMO programs require preauthorization for speciality care, said Joseph R. Baker of the Medicare Rights Center, and computer breakdowns could mean that these people can't get authorization for the care they need, ``with potentially devastating consequences.''

Dr. Whitney Addington, president of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, said there is a high level of Y2K awareness among doctors and many have taken corrective measures. But many haven't tested their systems, he said, and this could lead to a ``last minute 'debugging' demand that could overwhelm available resources.''

Last week the Senate panel following Y2K developments, in a report on the status of Y2K compliance 100 days before the new year, also pointed to the health care industry as an area of major concern. It concluded that while large hospitals and federal agencies such as the HCFA are in good shape, there was a real possibility of disruptions at the local doctor and rural or small inner-city hospital level.

Many older computers read only the last two digits of the year, and will not be able to differentiate between 2000 and 1900. That could cause computer systems to malfunction or break down.

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Sorry if this has been posted already. I felt it was an important revelation.

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 28, 1999

Answers

Rep. Stephen Horn gave HHS (which includes Medicare) an "F" in his September Y2K "report card" on the federal government:

http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/0913/fcw-newsgrade-09-13-99.html

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 28, 1999.


What made it even more interesting is that the Medicare story was the lead top story on AOL access tonight. Not the Drudge report, not World News Daily, -- AOL. With less than 100 days to go, mainstream press is doing more.

Maybe its because its "news". Who knows.

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), September 28, 1999.


San Francisco Gate...

Substantially the same article, paragraphs shuffled around, appears up here too, Michael...

Doubts cast on Y2K preparedness of Medicare providers

JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/09/28/national0119EDT0445.DTL



-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 28, 1999.


Nancy, that's actually where I got this story...AOL. Thanks for raising that point. I hadn't thought about it!

And it the Gate too Diane? Guess because it hit the AP.

There WAS a big shift yesterday in the official message like a planned campaign was underway with some pretty good media buys : )

I wonder if TPTB were waiting because behind the scenes they were getting private industry to ramp up production?

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), September 28, 1999.


Michael,

Fuzzy memory as to the specific thread, but, it was in one of those Jim Lord, Y2K Pentagon Papers, threads where Steve Davis responded for John Koskinen and to liberally paraphrase, John said... "There would be plenty of information this Fall to discuss."

Guess he'd "know."

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 28, 1999.



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