With enrollment turnover rates at most insurance plans of 35 percent a year, these critical studies are simply not possible at most healthcare organizations, insurance plans or medical centers. These same lessons could be translated to other U.S. population segments, if standardized medical record data is available for those segments. I believe it delayed mandating standards for computerized medical information because the issues involving medical records are quite complex and, as yet, have not been used or addressed to a broad extent in the industry, as opposed to computerized claims administration. Not only are privacy and confidentiality issues of the utmost importance, but the cost of mandating standards may be enormous, for business and government alike. I hope that my testimony today not only assures you that there is value in mandated standards, but that it is not necessary for all health care information to be standardized.
Standards are relatively easy to develop.
In fact, standards are so easy to develop that the industry is faced with a proliferation of non-integrated standards. Uniform standards are more difficult to implement. The health care industry has embraced uniform standards, especially when financial incentives were strongly in place. Billing and claim format standards are two examples. Since proprietary billing and claims standards do not provide individual vendors or companies with a competitive advantage, and since they all need to be paid, the industry has been more supportive of standards in these areas.