New HMSA programs focus on preventive screenings

By Ira Zunin

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 24, 2012

~~<p>There is still a fight on to preserve the soul of medicine. While health care reform opens the doors to increased access to care, costs must be trimmed to make it happen. Electronic health records create efficiencies, but they also enable closer monitoring of every medical visit. Through this window, payers have an expanded ability to direct how a physician practices via incentives and penalties.</p>
<p>However, the good practice of medicine involves a developed intuition and clinical judgment that comes only with a compassionate heart, a solid education and long experience in the field. To the extent that health care becomes reduced to a series of rigid algorithms, it will become too cookbook, the human element will wither and those who seek care will not be well served.</p>
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There is still a fight on to preserve the soul of medicine. While health care reform opens the doors to increased access to care, costs must be trimmed to make it happen. Electronic health records create efficiencies, but they also enable closer monitoring of every medical visit. Through this window, payers have an expanded ability to direct how a physician practices via incentives and penalties.

However, the good practice of medicine involves a developed intuition and clinical judgment that comes only with a compassionate heart, a solid education and long experience in the field. To the extent that health care becomes reduced to a series of rigid algorithms, it will become too cookbook, the human element will wither and those who seek care will not be well served. Login for more...