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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Howard Clark who wrote (5034)	3/25/1999 1:19:00 PM
From: flatsville	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

Howard I agree it is difficult to discern exactly what that article actually says re: D.C. General's computer systems other than they've got BIG TROUBLE. Here's something more generic re: y2k and health care. ------------------------------------------------------ Health Care Industry Has 'a Lot of Work to Do' By Stephen Barr Thursday, March 25, 1999; Page A35 About half of doctors, hospitals and nursing homes report that their billing and medical records computer systems have been fixed for Year 2000 operation, but less than a third said they had finished checking their biomedical equipment, a federal survey released yesterday showed. The survey of Medicare providers also found that less than 20 percent of the respondents had tested data exchanges between their computer systems and external vendors. Less than half of the respondents had developed an emergency backup plan in the event of computer failures due to the computers' inability to distinguish between the years 2000 and 1900. The survey was conducted by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. The findings underscored widespread concerns in the Clinton administration and on Capitol Hill that the health care industry continues to lag behind other economic sectors in dealing with the Y2K computer problem. By most accounts, the health care industry is diverse and fragmented, with little Y2K cooperation among insurance companies, doctors, hospitals and vendors. John A. Koskinen, who chairs President Clinton's Year 2000 council, said the survey shows the health care industry is "in better shape than expected." But, he added, "It is clear in this industry we have a lot of work to do. "In a context where the federal government expects to be done by this month and a lot of industries by June . . . the health care sector needs a full-court press to get from here to the end of the year," Koskinen said. Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, who heads the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which oversees Medicare, said the IG report "points to what other surveys have found, i.e., the health care community at large is not moving quickly enough and extensively enough to address the Y2K problem." The IG summary accompanying the survey cautioned that the data were furnished by doctors, hospitals and others who submit bills to the Medicare program and were not verified for accuracy. The IG urged that the data not be used to make generalizations about the entire health care industry. The survey was conducted by HHS Inspector General June Gibbs Brown from December to February. The IG sent 5,000 questionnaires to hospitals, nursing homes, home health care agencies, durable medical equipment suppliers and doctors. Completed forms were received from 49 percent of hospitals, 41 percent of nursing homes, 27 percent of home care agencies, 26 percent of equipment suppliers and 22 percent of physicians. Of those providers who are not now ready for Y2K, 90 percent of the hospitals said their financial systems would be fixed by year's end, while 70 percent to 84 percent of the other provider groups said they expect to fix their financial systems by Dec. 31. Except for hospitals, the other provider groups seemed uneasy about the year-end status of their biomedical equipment. Only 45 percent of rural physicians and 62 percent of urban nursing homes, for example, expect to have such equipment checked and tested by year's end. Small Firms a Big Concern Government officials worry that too many small and medium-size companies are not aware they can get assistance, sometimes even free software, to help make their computers ready for Jan. 1, 2000. Koskinen announced that yesterday the Clinton administration will sponsor a Small Business Y2K Action Week from March 29 through April 2, featuring more than 350 seminars and training events across the country. The events are being organized by the Small Business Administration and the departments of Commerce and Agriculture. Information can be found on the World Wide Web at www.sba.gov/y2k or by calling 1-800-827-5722. HCFA plans to launch a toll-free telephone line, 1-800-958-4232, to answer Y2K questions about medical supplies, Medicare billing and other issues. HCFA's Internet site, www.medicare.gov/y2k, also provides material. Industry groups yesterday urged doctors and local health officials to visit www.fda.gov for information on the Y2K readiness of thousands of medical devices. Consumers can obtain Y2K information by calling this toll-free line: 1-888-872-4925. © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company washingtonpost.com

To: Howard Clark who wrote (5034)	3/31/1999 2:16:00 PM
From: Howard Clark	Respond to of 9818

The strange appeal of the Y2K bug reason.com Why some doomers make me feel icky. The Y2K bug has become the latest hope for many people with a grievance against contemporary society--and not just the head-for-the-hills survivalists. The problem is real enough, of course, and computer and embedded-chip users are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to make sure that when the calendar turns to 2000, their machines don't think it's the year 1900 and crash. But in the minds of many, the computer glitch isn't just a technical problem. It's a vehicle for reimagining, and potentially remaking, the world.