Soon, there may not be an app for that

The lengths to which this administration goes to stifle private innovation never ceases to amaze me.  Enter, stage left, the FDA.

New technology is beginning to arrive that will allow you to communicate with your doctor without visiting your doctor.  Apps are being developed even as we speak that will allow you send, for example, your blood sugar levels, or your blood pressure levels directly to your doctor via your cell phone, or your tablet.

This is good.  It both saves you money in unneeded visits to your doctor, and, saves your doctor time for patients who truly need to “see” their doctor.  This model of efficiency may soon change.

The FDA wants to regulate software used to support the decisions made by patients and health-care providers the same way it regulates the software embedded in hardware such as X-ray machines and infusion pumps [that is, by calling them, “medical devices”]…The result could be the worst regulatory mismatch possible.  An FDA process that takes years cannot possibly be applied to technologies that run on our phones or IPads and get updated on a regular basis.

Well, how do we know these apps are safe, you ask?

The process already exists for safeguarding the public for computers in health care.  It’s not the FDA premarket review but the health information  technology certification program, established by President George W. Bush and is still working fine…

But, there is an extra added government benefit from calling these apps “medical devices”.  When Obamacare is implemented, all medical device manufacturers will pay a 2.3% tax on their gross sales, not their profits.

So, if you are a bright computer whiz kid what will you do?  Develop an app that allows a patient to communicate with their doctor, but may take years to receive FDA approval, and chew up your profits with the Obamacare “medical device” tax, or, develop an app that, let’s say, enables people to find out what is on sale at their local grocery store?

 

SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

8 Comments

  1. stinkfoot on June 18, 2012 at 5:56 am

    “Affordable” in title only- Obamacare is showing itself to be a naked money grab.



  2. JBS on June 18, 2012 at 6:38 am

    It’s really NObama’s churlish nature to be sarcastic, as in “affordable.” LOL
    What we have here is more regulatory overreach disguised as pure Regime tax lust. O’blamo knows that his HR 3962 monstrosity has to control every aspect of medicine and, tax it.
    So, when my medical provider says to take my blood pressure and weight every day and to phone the numbers to my doctor’s office, my cell phone or land line is now a “medical device”? Maybe I’ll be taxed for practicing medicine . . . no, wait, that’s as ridiculous as taxing an app that facilitates communication with a doctor!
    The Regime never ceases to amaze and dishearten.



  3. phil on June 18, 2012 at 7:51 am

    We are now poised on the edge of a precipice.? In November, will we meekly allow ourselves, lemming-like, to be nudged off this cliff by the boy who would be king, or will we finally wake up and remember that we are AMERICANS! and push that little zero off that selfsame cliff?



  4. Tim-in-Alabama on June 18, 2012 at 9:11 am

    More trickle down tyranny.



    • JBS on June 18, 2012 at 6:17 pm

      It could be called “tinkle-down” tyranny. The Prince of Petulance treats us like we are peons.



  5. Dimsdale on June 18, 2012 at 9:39 am

    Just like “green jobs”: everything will eventually be classified as a “medical device” and subsequently taxed.
    ?
    The lefty master plan.



  6. Lynn on June 19, 2012 at 7:42 am

    LOL. I just hope when I “grow up” I can Be a computer whiz kid.



  7. Murphy on June 19, 2012 at 12:06 pm

    It won’t be just the app that’s taxed but the cell phone/ pad / computer also



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