HealthCare & Year 2000

Keywords : Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Clinics, Physicians Offices, Medical Facilities,
See Also : HealthCare Links, Biomedical Compliance Links (experimental)

United States Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem

• Senate Y2K Committee Report- "Investigating the Impact of the Year 2000 Problem"
  • Health.pdf (Feb 24, 1999)
    • The Gartner Group, a survey research company, issued reports stating the healthcare industry lags behind others in dealing with the Y2K problem in managerial attention, technical resources available, financial resources committed and remediation monitoring.
    • An additional problem is a highly decentralized system is used to process health claim payments, the underpinning of healthcare financing. It is comprised of a  government insurance industry mechanism that electronically processes nearly 4 million Medicare claims worth over $1 billion daily at over 70 separate locations. Third party payors for private health claims utilize a similar type of electronic claims process.
    • HIMA represents more than 800 manufacturers of medical devices, diagnostic products, and medical information systems. HIMA's members manufacture nearly 90 percent of the $58 billion of health care technology products purchased annually in the United States, and more than 50 percent of the $137 billion purchased annually around the world.
    • Healthcare is the largest single industry in the United States. It is a giant of an industry: 750,000 physicians, 5200 hospitals, annual expenditures of $1.5 trillion, patient utilization census of 3.8 million daily inpatient visits and 20 million daily outpa-tient visits, a federal Medicare program treating 38 million seniors at an annual cost of $300 billion. Additionally, Americans consume $90 billion worth of medications and medical supplies per year.

American Medical Association - AMA provides Y2K information to its members only.  Very bare otherwise.  Two clear reports to Congress:

• Year 2000 Conversion Efforts and Implications for Beneficiaries and Taxpayers(2-24-1999)
• Impact of the Year 2000 Problem on Physician Practices (7-23-1998)

American Hospital Association: Member Readiness - Y2KIntro.html

• Member Readiness - Member Readiness - Summary of Findings
• Member Readiness - Issues, Priorities and Potential Impacts
  • Biomedical equipment and device failure - 93%
  • Facilities infrastructure areas - 91%
  • Impact on existing information systems infrastructure - 91%
  • Patient care delivery interruptions - 86%
  • Customer-supplier relationships/provision of services - 65%
  • Impact on cash flow, receivables, and payables - 61%
  • Legal liability/due diligence - 54%
  • Public relations/consumer confidence 30%

Health Industry Manufacturers Association (HIMA) Year 2000

• Year 2000 Healthcare Links
• Year 2000 Document Archive (HIMA press)
• HIMA represents more than 800 manufacturers of medical devices, diagnostic products, and medical information systems. HIMA's members manufacture nearly 90 percent of the $58 billion of health care technology products purchased annually in the United States, and more than 50 percent of the $137 billion purchased annually around the world.

Government Accounting Office (GAO): Year 2000 Computing Crisis Reports

• Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Medicare and the Delivery of Health Services Are at Risk , by Joel C. Willemssen, Director of Civil Agencies Information Systems Issues, before the House Committee on Ways and Means. GAO/T-AIMD-99-89 Feb 24, 1999.
  • On January 12, 1999, the Administrator (HCFA) sent individual letters to each of the 1.25 million Medicare providers in the United States, alerting them to take prompt Year 2000 action on their information and billing systems.
  • HCFA now reports having a complete data exchange inventory of nearly 8,000 internal exchanges and over 255,000 external data exchanges. HCFA also issued instructions to its contractors (carriers and fiscal intermediaries) to inform providers and suppliers that they must submit Medicare claims in Year 2000-compliant data exchange format by April 5 of this year.
  • Readiness information is limited throughout the health care sector. Specifically, the amount of data available to consumers on the Y2K readiness of health care providers, private insurers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers is scant. This past June, for example, the American Hospital Association sent a Y2K readiness survey to about 4,700 hospitals. However, only about 17 percent of its members responded.
• Medicare Computer Systems: Year 2000 Challenges Put Benefits and Services in Jeopardy GAO/AIMD-98-284. (HCFA) September 28, 1998.
• Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Leadership Needed to Collect and Disseminate Critical Biomedical Equipment Information. GAO/T-AIMD-98-310 September 24, 1998.

HCFA's Y2K (Year2000) Home Page

• Medicare Specific Information for Y2K

Center for Disease Control: CDC and Year 2000

• Year 2000 Assessment of State Health Agencies in the U.S. March 1, 1999
  • This assessment is based on self-reported data from States collected December 1998 though February 1999. It is limited by the non-response of 50% of the states and territories.
  • In response to the President's Y2K Council and the Healthcare Outreach Workgroup, CDC developed a survey assessment to measure the State health agencies' Y2K awareness and readiness. The survey was conducted with the assistance of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
• Y2K Action Plan for Clinical Laboratories

Veterans Health Administration (VHA): Y2K Project Home Page

• VHA "Patient-Focused Y2K Contingency Planning Guidebook"
• Medical Device Y2K Guidebook
• VISN Y2K Checklist

Center for Devices and Radiological Health: Year 2000 Date Problem and Medical Devices

• FDA Medical Device Malfunction Advisory
• Introduction to the Year 2000 Impact on Biomedical Equipment
• Search the Federal Y2K Biomedical Equipment Clearinghouse Database

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) - Health Care Links Overview

• AAMC Reporter February 1999 A Word from the President - Thoughts on Y2K
• AAMC Washington Highlights - March 26, 1999 OIG Report Finds Providers Mostly Y2K Ready
• AAMC Reporter January 1999 Confronting the Y2K Problem - Plan, then Communicate to Excess
• About the AAMC Group on Information Resources Year 2000

President's Council for Year 2000 Conversion Healthcare links.

Year 2000 Health Care Industry Issues Sponsored by the Chief Information Officers (CIO) Committee on Year 2000, Maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Governmentwide Policy.

Year 2000 Search Engine - Biomedical, http://hilary.hypermart.net/cgi-bin/search.cgi

Australia - Biomedical Database "Welcome to the Year 2000 Biomedical Engineering Database, produced with the invaluable assistance of the NSW Department of Health  We are actively soliciting information for this database - if you have equipment not mentioned here that you have tested for Year 2000 Compliance, and would like to share that information with the rest of the medical community, please use our Compliance Notification Form."

Rx2000 Solutions Institute "What is the Rx2000 Solutions Institute? An independent, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to assisting the health care industry in addressing and resolving the year 2000 crisis. "

• Year 2000 Self Help for Health Care Organizations
• Articles, Publications
• Health Care Year 2000 List Server Discussion Forum

Washington State: Links Page - Year 2000 Program

• HEALTHPLUS - Biomedical Database
• Washington Healthcare Association
• Washington State Hospital Association

Orlando Regional Healthcare System: Year 2000 and Healthcare

United Kingdom: National Infrastructure 2000 - Healthcare

UK: Medical Devices and the Year 2000

National Institute of Health Year 2000 Working Group

Y2K Reference, Mel's Place "Mel's Place is the starting point for Internet research for medical service and support professionals. Mel's Place saves a lot of time when searching for reference material."  Good selection of Medical Y2K links.

Millennium Health Care

Results of Healthcare Information Management Systems Society Hot Topic session on the Year 2000