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How will Y2K hit medical industry?
By Erich Luening
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
July 22, 1998, 7:45 a.m. PT
The Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem tomorrow is set to address the Y2K bug's impact on the medical industry.
Industry and government experts will demonstrate and discuss medical device failures as a result of the millennium bug, as well as economic hits to hospitals when Y2K failures prevent Medicare and Medicaid payments.
The hearing will also address the health industry's status in preparing its systems for the Year 2000 bug, which experts warn has the potential to destroy systems holding private medical records and payment systems and impair medical devices used for diagnostic tests, patient monitoring, and life support systems.
The bug was created by antiquated hardware and software formats that denote years in two-digit formats, such as 98 for 1998 and 99 for 1999. The glitch will occur in 2000, when computers are either fooled into thinking the year is 1900 or interpret the 2000 as a meaningless "00" . The glitch could throw out of whack everything from bank balances to elevator maintenance to building security procedures.
Speakers at the hearing will include senior officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Care Financing Administration, and representatives from the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, and the Health Industry Manufacturing Association.
The Health and Human Services Department has been criticized for its slow efforts to prepare its computer systems for the Year 2000.
After a detailed survey of its public-owned health service, the British National Health service estimated that it will cost $530 million to fix the Year 2000 bug, a junior health minister told Reuters yesterday.