We are in a rush to cut costs in the healthcare industry. It is something that must be done. The first cut will be the meanest—jobs will be lost by some of the most needy and least paid workers in the system. Not doctors, nurses or care givers, but the workers that answer phones, record information, file and maintain patient records. If you have ever had responsibility for bottom line results, you know that the biggest and easiest cost reductions are in labor. Healthcare is not much different from any other industry. We pay for the wasted labor that is inherent in the system. We pay the costs as they are passed through to the government and insurance companies with higher taxes and higher insurance premiums.
The push to automate and electronicate vital health records and information is necessary. Unfortunately, It will result in job loses at a time that we have record unemployment. We desperately need to streamline the system, but not now when every job lost increases the burden on taxpayers. In better times, there would be other comparable jobs available. These are not better times.