In a conversation at this year’s rich person convention—aka the World Economic Forum—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that AI will lose public support unless it’s used to “do something useful that changes the outcomes of people and communities and countries and industries.”
He did at least provide one real example of what he means by all this: “When a doctor can … spend more time with the patient, because the AI is doing the transcription and entering the records in the EMR system, entering the right billing code so that the healthcare industry is better served across the payer, the provider, and the patient, ultimately—that’s an outcome that I think all of us can benefit from.”
I understand different things need different codes, otherwise the labs or other doctors don’t know what they need to do, but the fact a doctor can order a test and then a random person with no medical background, or even just a machine, can tell the doctor “no, that’s not needed” is a waste in the system and a waste of people’s, often sick people’s, time. There is no code for homeopathy tests or procedures, so there’s no way for them to be prescribed. A doctor can’t order 10 ccs of water danced on by fairies, so I don’t see that being an issue. My point is that whatever a doctor orders shouldn’t need that much oversight. If at the end of the year the government wants to run a “how many MRIs per patient” check on providers they can still do so, but that doesn’t require every MRI to be justified in the moment. Then you can investigate the practice for potential fraud if they’re not actually doing the MRIs and just charging for them, or if they’re being ordered unnecessarily. Doctors should be trusted to do right by their patients. If the government had a going rate for procedures and there was one place where people can see everything that was billed as part of their care things might not need as much oversight.
I admittedly don’t work in the field, and I’m aware Medicare/medicaid fraud does happen, but considering the waste (on all sides including patients) created by all the overhead I think we’d come out ahead by just trusting doctors and checking end of year stats.
Also, through the ACA people do technically get quite a lot of choice in their healthcare benefits. I don’t think it’s a good system because in my opinion your income shouldn’t dictate your quality of care or coverage, but if you’re looking for more choice in the US and have not looked at the marketplace I recommend doing so. I personally think single payer is better, but definitely look there if you’re looking for HSA or deductible differences.