health incentives and penalties

[sadmin]

For physicians to meet the meaningful use criteria, they must report on various core measurements; like BMI and hypertension. I dont have to put a tinfoil hat on to think that the implementation of electronic health records has an underlying goal, besides continuity of care, especially if its backed by the .gov. Why would medicare / medicaid offer physicans an annual incentive in the range of 45K to be on an ehr and create one of the core reporting measures a patients BMI?
Is it possible they are gearing up to penalize a person with higher insurance costs due to their weight? What do you think about that concept, would that would be "fair"?

Here is an article for reference.
http://www.ehrbloggers.com/2010/08/clinical-quality-measures-and.html

[Alric]

Given the legislatively mandated trend away from charging an individual more for increased risk factors, I don't necessarily see the Democrat-run government going back down that path. They're all about spreading that cost over everyone.

[Hmac]

Of course that's what they're doing. They've been laying this groundwork for years. Before Meaningful Use there were billions of dollars in grants to establish EHRs. They're on a mission and you aren't going to like the end result.

[sadmin]

Agree completely...I just didnt think the discussion would take off if I worded it as statements. Im pissed I got my flu. vacc., im sure it was laced with a slow growing cancer.