The Military Health System (MHS) set up a version of its Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) electronic health record (EHR) system for use in the White House.

MHS chief information officer Charles Campbell spoke about the initiative at the recent Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference in Atlanta, held March 1-4.

Healthcare IT News reports.

2 Responses to “White House Adopts Military EHR”

1. Marilyn Says:
   March 20th, 2010 at 8:46 am

   This is a frightening concept for me. Anything that has been created or adopted by the military may very well not apply to our real world of valid CPT codes, viable and complete procedural descriptions, medical necessity, and reimbursement.

   Our specialty clinic had a recent top-level appeal with Tri-West (contractor for Tricare). TW refused to recognize or pay for unlisted codes and, after review by its coder, downcoded two procedures to limited debridement. The affected physician had a telephone conversation with this coder and easily proved her mistake. We have yet to receive our fair reimbursement, but at least the battle was won.

   One of the things we discovered in this process was that TW used a ‘scrubbed’ CPT description database that had none of the detail of the procedures available in our resource documents. Every item simply included the first 3 or 4 words of the code description. Little wonder that the claims people cannot differentiate between procedures as every code looks the same to them.

   I was speechless at this thoughtless ‘tool’ devised by the DOD.

2. Marianne Says:
   March 23rd, 2010 at 9:26 am

   I too am very distressed about the White House obtaining an EHR system. I find it unusual that the White House feels the necessity to use a system that is highly regulated by the HIPAA act. It appears that the individuals using this system will not be associated with the medical profession but will be using it for other purposes.
   What would the White House feel like if I obtained a system to use their “Security System”?
   I am sure that I would be investigated.
   Who investigates this????

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