Sunday, April 18, 2010

Cerner - Fuqua School of Business 'Corporate Ethics 101' Paper and Website Disappear

On April 16 at "Healthcare IT Corporate Ethics 101: A Strategy for Cerner Corporation to Address the HIT Stimulus Plan" I wrote about a Duke Fuqua School of Business paper (apparently authored by a Cerner official) promoting a business strategy of regulatory manipulation to restrain the free market for HIT products.

The paper, and the Fuqua School of Business web page "Past Papers" on which the paper was promoted, have both disappeared as of this April 18 writing.

I have posted an image of the "Past Papers" page and updated my link to an archived copy of the paper, but the scrubbing of the Fuqua site and removal of the paper is interesting.

-- SS

Addendum Apr. 19 -

A former HIMSS staffer related to me that I am likely blacklisted from the HIT vendor industry as a result of my writings on health IT on this site and at my academic site dating to 1999, via verbal exchanges and even in writing among HIT organizations. It could explain why my CV's been uniformly ignored by that industry since the early 2000's.

If so, so be it. Who else might be on that blacklist, I wonder?

Also, didn't Richard Nixon get into a bit of trouble for maintaining such a list after it was discovered?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

To fellow readers of this blog: It behooves those of you who desire to study and adopt this strategy for your businesses to copy this paper now and transfer it to parchment.

Anonymous said...

As soon as the word got out, they were busted. We knew the paper would disappear. That is why a PDF should always be made, because the EHRVA does not want this paper to get in the hands of the Feds.

OOOPS! Too late..now try to talk your way out of why it disappeared in front of a Congressional Hearing!!!

alborg said...

Hi Scot:

The paper has been reproduced in part here- http://histalk2.com/2010/04/18/monday-morning-update-41910/:

"In the current environment, much of the strategy concerning the ARRA stimulus package depends on the details of government regulation. Specifically, the outcome of the definition of “meaningful use of EHR” will greatly impact the strategy that Cerner should adopt. The higher the regulatory burden placed on vendors the greater the advantage is to incumbent vendors. Therefore, it is a critical time to influence the direction of regulatory decision regarding “meaningful use”. In the coming months as Congress and Health and Human Services decide the details of the regulations, Cerner should invest resources to understand the direction of proposed regulations and partner with other incumbent firms to lobby the government to raise the regulatory hurdles as high as possible. Using the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) classification scheme for EHR adoption, Cerner should influence policy makers to set the meaningful use bar around stage 4 of 7 stages. This level would encourage even large academic hospitals, which currently average stage 2.5 adoption, to adopt new technologies to qualify for government incentives. It would also erect significant barriers to entry for new firms and encourage small, less technically capable and financially limited firms to exit the market. The message to government officials must not appear to be for the purposes of establishing barriers to entry, rather, it must suggest that meaningful cost savings and quality improvements cannot be achieved without a high standard of “meaningful use.”"

This puts into print what was obvious to those of us critics: that HIMSS is using the government to thwart competition.

I think that this needs to be taken to higher levels- Senator Grassley and a complaint to the FTC.

Al

InformaticsMD said...

al borg writes:

"The paper has been reproduced in part here- http://histalk2.com/2010/04/18/monday-morning-update-41910/:"

I've posted a PDF copy here.

-- SS

InformaticsMD said...

Anonymous April 18, 2010 10:24:00 PM EDT wrote:

OOOPS! Too late..now try to talk your way out of why it disappeared in front of a Congressional Hearing!!!

I'm waiting for a threatening letter regarding my reposting of the paper. If received I will post it as well.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the blacklist Scot. Its a freeing experience to know that one doesnt have to worry about ruining their career anymore by speaking the truth.

Now all I worry about is UPMC lawyers and PR people abusing me.

oops, best post as anon.

Anyhow, thank you.