Fascinating article. Thanks for writing it. You raise many excellent points that are worthy of comment, but I’ll try to keep this short.

“ Every EMR integration is essentially a one-to-one contract between a payer and provider.”
I almost wonder if the energy and effort calling for a single payer would be better spent on calling for national/regional/state EMR systems or health information exchanges. I know Indiana has a somewhat robust exchange. It would both reduce costs (we lawyers tend to charge when we review each of those contracts you talk about) and improve outcomes.

I particularly appreciate your focus on using the data and technology to improve patient outcomes, complete with real-life examples. The post and individual stories do help emphasize the limitation of technological advances. Telemedicine is great, but a cool new app that allows me to use my iPad or iPhone to interact with a physician won’t improve outcomes in low income populations that may not have WiFi or other necessary technology. And I’m not sure that the situations you highlight would have had the same outcome absent a personal interaction.

Thanks again for the interesting post.