[specialist]

Sure. But HL7 is most emphatically also not-for-patient, -for-doctor, -for-providers, etc.

HL7 and ICD-9/10 have two purposes. First, more billable hours for consultants and make work for admins.

Second, expanding the confusopoly, enabling insurers to deny coverage, payment.

The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy http://a.co/5ux1yrK

[lostlogin]

I’m not sure I agree with that. HL7 gets messages onto one system (eg the MRI) from the hospital info system (RIS). There is nothing billable in terms of insurers and while departments bill each other it’s all one system (public healthcare, New Zealand). I know we are small fry, but other places use HL7 in ways that have billing as a secondary concern too. The system I currently use doesn’t bill with HL7 at all, it’s just to get identifying info onto the images and reports to referrers.

[specialist]

Sorry for being unclear. I'm talking about the consultancies (like my former employer) fleecing their customers (hospital, clinics, agencies).

I don't know your country's system. Single payer? That'd be nice.

In the Freedom Markets™ loving USA, most everyone exchanging medical data are antagonists. So all the incentives encourage hoarding and obfuscation.