Sunday, December 06, 2015

Strongmen, Bosses, and the American Board of Internal Medicine

From John Kass, political reporter from the Chicago Tribune, this morning:
"Chicago is the most American of American cities," Emanuel has said, repeatedly. "It's not just any city. If you want to come and see America, you come to its heartland. And what is the capital of that heartland? Chicago."

Democratic political stars with Chicago ties — from his old boss President Barack Obama to presumptive 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — must enjoy hearing it.

Politicians running for the office of emperor in a Republic just love fairy tales.

But there's one thing wrong with the mayor's favorite saying: It's wrong.

Chicago is not the most American of American cities. Chicago is the most Soviet of American cities.

The people of Chicago know this and it's time the rest of the nation understands it, too.

Chicago may appear to be an American city. But it is actually run on the old Soviet model, where the people were bossed for generations by ruthless and cynical strongmen.

The Russians call them strongmen. In Chicago, we call them bosses. But strongman-boss, boss-strongman, what difference, at this point, does it make?

The strongman of Chicago rules by fear. He holds the terrible hammer of big government in his hand. And if you're a corporate titan or a corner shopkeeper, you don't want that hammer to strike you down.
While Chicago is embroiled in a horrible police scandal uncovered by the flow of information via the digital age, I couldn't help but think how true Mr. Kass's words were in terms of US medical care and the control of practicing physicians on the front lines of health care today.

While nowhere near the seriousness of the police story in Chicago, the story of similar strongmen/boss tactics used against practicing physicians is a sad story that has been growing for years. Until recently, physicians have been oblivious to these tactics used by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) (based in Chicago) and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) who used their political and professional connections to foist their Soviet-style strongmen tactics on practicing physicians via their board re-certification requirement called "Maintenance of Certification®."

Participate every two years or lose your job.

Participate every two years or never see another penny from a major insurer.

Attend a board certification course that does not bow to the ABMS/ABIM strongmen?

Get sued or sanctioned.

Here's a redacted copy of the ABIM sanction letter sent to a physician who attended the former Arora Board Review course.  It came FedEx to the physician labeled with the instructions "destroy if undeliverable." To my knowledge this letter, sent to some 2000+ physicians who attended the Arora Board Review Course over the years it operated, has never been made public by the ABIM:

ABIM Sanction Letter issued by Lynn O. Langdon, MS,
Chief Operating Officer, ABIM (Click to enlarge)

It is a threatening letter, issued by a non-physician Chief Operating Officer of the ABIM who served as strongman for the ABIM and ABMS and later earned a $297,646 bonus from the ABIM in FY2012 (Page 22). The letter suggests the physician-attendee of the Arora Board Review Course violated a "Pledge of Honesty" and failed to call the obscure and unvetted ABIM Exam Integrity Hotline. And because the ABIM now has "ethical and professional concerns" about that physician, it is "placing a copy of this letter in your file."


Threats. Intimidation.  Strong-arming.

Maintenance of Certification®: the Chicago Way.

To think this whole process was been transported from Chicago to Washington, DC and is now deeply embedded in the Affordable Care Act as a physician quality registry, courtesy of heavy lobbying by the ABMS (and likely the ABIM), is sickening and wrong.

Practicing physicians, like the citizens of Chicago, deserve to know the truth of how and why this occurred.

-Wes

PS: Ms. Langdon no longer serves as Chief Operating Officer of the ABIM. She was quietly replaced by Nkanta “Nick” Hines, MSc, MBA. Ms. Langdon now serves as a board member of the American Board of Medical Specialties.


41 comments:

  1. Wes,

    So the good thing is you really have TWO songs about where you live:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoKn7vkSMBc

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VlBuJmgowc

    Otherwise, sucks man. All the best to you...what will you be doing with the EOY deadline they stuck you with? I hope there's a good plan. You're a good guy. Keep fighting the good fight. Everyone knows you're honest & don't lie, cheat or steal. Never take their BS personally; slime is who they are & what they do, right?

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  2. "Ms. Langdon no longer serves as Chief Operating Officer of the ABIM. She was quietly replaced by Nkanta “Nick” Hines, MSc, MBA. Ms. Langdon now serves as a board member of the American Board of Medical Specialties."

    awwwww... they ditched her, huh?

    How much are they paying her now?

    Those 30-40 hour weeks are tough.

    ----------

    And notice the ABIM has gone into hiding. They are playing for time.
    24000 internists have told the ABIM to stick it.

    As soon as they announce they are sticking with MOC , they know people will drop the ABIM totally.

    Lets here from you Dr. Baron.

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  3. BWAHAHAHAHA....

    " ABIM now has "ethical and professional concerns" ????

    The ABIM are f**king shameless.

    They're the ones with NO ETHICS AND NO PROFESSIONALISM.



    Damn I hate them.

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  4. As a medical student at the University of Illinois in Chicago in 2003, I attended a presentation by former Chief of Transplantation-turned-Whistleblower Dr. Raymond Pollak, who described his experiences pushing back against the system at UIC, where patients in need of liver transplants magically had the severity of their condition adjusted to elevate them on the priority list. No one could say anything for sure, but the carrot for the University was up to approximately $250,000 in fees from CMS per transplant surgery. When Dr. Pollak pushed back against what he considered outrageous abuses in the manipulation of patient priorities, he stated that he was called on the carpet by the Dean of the College of Medicine and asked, "What's wrong with doing things the Chicago Way?" To which, Dr. Pollak stated he replied, "You mean like when dead people vote?"

    Dr. Pollak ended up with more than 50% cut in salary and he was sent to Siberia, er Peoria while the University ultimately settled the lawsuit for a couple of million dollars. The Dean retired after the customary victory lap at the University, and the last time I checked, no one went to jail.

    So in a city founded on real estate transactions involving swampland, nothing has really changed in almost 200 years.

    "Honest... I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!" - Joliet Jake Blues

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  5. I looked at the bonus granted to Lynn Langdon for her work in the police operation against physicians and competing board preparation companies from 2008-2012.

    Nearly $300,000! I have never heard of a bonus like that. It is not commensurate with a salary bonus. Now we know and understand what that blood money was for.

    Who and what did she kill?

    Also, what did Rich Baron get for his participation in the lawsuits and management of legal teams against board prep companies during this time? Did he get any money?

    Or was the promotion to CEO enough?

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  6. I am outraged by this action of the ABMS to hurt people over money. Look at Chuck Kroll's Twitter graph on how much money the ABIM made in program revenues after this. Dramatic increases.

    I understand this strongman letter went out to 2700 physicians!

    Who actually seized the property of the Arora Board Preparation Course. Who went through the seized property of Dr. Arora and chose the victims to persecute?

    Did all the people named on the side of this reprimand/sanctions letter participate in this criminal invasion of privacy and theft of personal property. Who else?

    How were the 2700 physicians culled from twenty years of an ACCME-approved study course files taken from Dr. Arora's home.

    I understand most of the attendees were sent to Arora's courses by well-thought-of PD's from highly respected University/community medicine programs. A majority of physicians who went to the courses were reimbursed afterwards out of their government stipend money.

    I also heard that the federal Marshals brought battering rams to use against that old physician who ran the courses? Could someone post the writ to seize and the federal marshals' orders to enter the property with ABIM investigators? I'd like to see that!

    I still can't believe that a federal judge would issue an order like that which would hurt so many physicians and give the ABMS the complete power over physicians with such fear tactics.

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  7. What is becoming clear is how the ABMS and ABIM have mutual financial friends in common. There are so many in the testing industry to name. This relates to the "letter of concern" used to scare physicians into submission posted above.

    The links between the ABIM 2000+ letters signed by Lynn Langdon bearing the officers names typed on the left margins is clear. The governing structure shows a great deal of interaction and mutual planning.

    Clarification: Someone thought that Langdon was now at the ABMS. I suspect this is partly true only. Do you think that Langdon would be far away from her gravy train at the foundation with nearly 100 million in probably illicit assets. It hard to say goodbye to something like that. How do I know? I called her up.

    Who all has benefited from the creation of the ABIM Foundation over the years?

    Executives like Langdon, Baron, and Cassel!

    I believe Lynn Langdon still is in the same offices at the ABIM with the same phone number and same desk. It is unclear what she is doing there or how much she is being paid for her current "senior advisory position." It is a past title they will most likely recycle for her in order to syphon off even more personal money for her to stash in here investment accounts.

    Langdon, a close associate of Chris Cassel and Lois Nora, is also on the ABMS board of directors; so that part is true, unless something dramatic has occurred. I don't think anyone could pry someone like that away from all that Foundation money. The excess money should have gone to the IRS or back to the taxpayers or refunded to physicians. I believe there will be plenty of evidence coming soon to back a class action lawsuit to refund that money. It is in violation of tax laws and the articles of incorporation.

    But where there is a "rule of money," the words not-for-profit, voluntary, and goodwill get tossed out the door and kicked down the alley into the dumpster.

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  8. It's all about the money. What's there at the ABMS for Langdon and the ABIM to prosper by?

    I don't know if there is any compensation for Langdon's ABMS board seat yet, but new revenue streams are in the pipeline coming from certification solutions, testing security partnerships and online proctored testing enterprises, and other offerings that may pad the executive compensation and squeeze upward the ABMS membership dues.

    What's in the ABMS 990 tax filings?

    The 2013 990 shows only the board chair getting compensation.
    ABMS lists the travel and meeting expenses elsewhere rather than stating they are reimbursed for their meetings.

    Executive compensation.

    Nora, President and CEO with her compensation package "weighed in" at just under $800K .

    Deferred retirement payments to CEOs?

    There are curious payments made to former CEO and CEO/Presidents with big payouts for 0 hours worked. What is that money for?
    Note the deferred compensation assets listing toward the end of this filing.

    Note the dues paid by ABMS members at nearly $8 million dollars.

    Other interesting items.

    They spent $4.2 million on trying to gain market share of certifications in East Asia, Brunei, Cambodia and Australia. I believe this was/is a big money loser. Who gets that money?

    A grant just under $2 million was given to the ABMS research and ed. foundation? What kind of research and who gets paid for doing it? MOC is propped up and has stents courtesy of big revenue streams.

    ABMS solutions made $3.26 million. They have certification verification plan just right for you!

    They have a holding company called ABMS International that had
    revenues of $5.3 million. Who paid that and where did it go?

    ABMS Singapore had a 0 balance in 2013. Go figure that one.

    I'm fascinated by this organization that Lynn Langdon and gang at the ABIM have been involved with closely over the past few decades.

    ABMS appears to be the "godfather" in a family of specialty board money machines that pay hefty membership fees. The ABIM is the collection agency that hold physicians money nationally. 25% of physicians paid into it and still pay. That is the ruse of the ABIM's non-profit intent turning into a for-profit, then big on profit.

    To summarize the ABMS and ABIM. They allow for enormous CEO/President salaries, fantastic retirement payouts and deferred compensation. I would describe their 990 as "spread out delayed accounting" with bits and pieces of nefarious notations blotched on the page.

    No lobbying, though. No way, not us. That's not the Chicago Way.

    But there are a few intelligible financial facts appearing here and there like a summer's rarified display of lightning bugs.

    https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/410847713

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  9. I can't get over the huge bonus which went to the COO of the ABIM. We know from the COO's job description that Langdon was heavily involved in test security during that time when physicians and competing test preparation companies were absolutely decimated by the ABIM's "strongman approach" to increasing the bang for the buck of their business. Certain ABIM employees and the legal teams obviously acted more like a paramilitary unit than a goodwill society.

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  10. I've been looking through specialty board and membership society non-profit tax filings--searching for something comparable to Lynn Langdon's 298,000 bonus.
    After I spent hours pouring over IRS 990 tax filings of others, I gasped, wanting to call the DOJ or IRS about this payment and the ABIM cumulative actions.

    Something is really wrong here!.

    It certainly was not a typo because it fits a timeline for the deliberate act of seizing private property to get at physician files in order to demonize them; this was accomplished with press power before there could even be a discussion.

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  11. What the ABIM did was wrong by every measure of fairness. It was an unlawful attack when we look at facts. It is important to look dispassionately at the emotional hysteria and ethical preaching of Chris Cassel, who later sat in the hot seat for egregious conflicts of interest. We must not to forget Cassel's double interests that went un punished. Not even discussion of revoking Casell's precious ABIM certificate by her ABIM cronies.

    Why was Casell just like a cartel boss sitting on the Kaiser Boards not even reprimanded for this by the ABIM and ABMS boards?

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  12. For a Fistful of SilverTue Dec 08, 02:08:00 AM CST

    The face of medicine was bloodied by Lynn Langdon and ABMS henchmen; but as hard as it may be to stomach for some readers, the hit was ordered by others with full knowledge and complicity of the effect this would have on the future of medicine and those who would be establishing greater control over our healthcare system.

    Who?

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  13. 'Tall Tales' Told to the IRSTue Dec 08, 02:42:00 AM CST

    "Charles P. Kroll Retweeted #ABIM Fun Fact Dec 6
    Dr. Baron and Mr. Hide? Unlike 2014 ABIM 2015 stand-alone financials not posted."

    Saving Your Hide.

    The ABIM can no longer even pretend to protect the public with MOC or its certification process.

    The ABIM is too busy protecting itself from its own wrongdoing and self-immolation.

    Mr. Hyde is attacking Mr. Hide.




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  14. " " Ditto for the ABMS " "

    ReplyDelete

  15. Can someone tell me WHEN and HOW the dear Ms. Lynn Langdon went from M.S.

    to M.D. ??

    At her age .....??

    Which medical school was that ?


    Something fishy there .

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  16. ABIM's Highly Suspicios Secret ActivitiesTue Dec 08, 03:19:00 PM CST

    ABIM's Sanction Letter to 2700 Arora Board Review Attendees.

    When the ABIM issued this sanction/fear letter it failed to mention that ABMS associate members (and partners) approved/recommended Dr. Arora's board review courses as a highly valued source for candidates and diplomates to prepare with.

    Courses were highly prized and the phycians running the program was highly honored and respected. He was after all doubly certified by the ABIM!

    In fact, not just the ABIM approved of Arora, but every ABMS member approved of Arora's courses because it filled a space in the market, and was a high quality service and product.

    This prestigious list of ABMS members approving tacitly or implicitly includes the ACCME, ACGME, AHA, AMS, AAMC,CMSS, ECFMG, FSB, and NBME.

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  17. American Civil LibertiesTue Dec 08, 03:33:00 PM CST

    The American Hospital Association (AHA)a member of the ABMS approved of Arora's courses by being a leader in "providing education for health care leaders and as a source of information on health care issues and trends."

    In fact every ABMS member approved of Arora's courses because it filled a space and they were highly prized and the phycians leading the educational program was highly honored and respected.

    What changed?

    If the ABIM had knowledge of something as they suggest, then why were they not forthcoming with the information to physicians and the ABMS associate members which approved of Arora? Where was the warning to physicians, institutions, and the public.

    I want an answer to these and other questions from the ABIM and ABMS.

    We need a thorough investigation into why the ABIM never sent out a letter to candidates and diplomates immediately just as they did when they sent out warnings about "phony board certifications."

    The so called "phony certificates" suspiciously "arrived on the scene" at the same time as the highly biased investigations into competing board review course, i.e., those courses which were not generating cash flow or political currency for the ABIM and ABMS.

    http://www.abim.org/news/scam-certification-boards.aspx
    http://www.the-hospitalist.org/article/watch-out-for-phony-board-certification-offers/

    Does anyone care about facts underlying these suddenly "dangerous activities" and the timing of everything. In looking at facts does anyone suspect that this was just another highly biased and prejudicial investigation that took place with a great deal of information misstated, omitted or exculpatory evidence suppressed to make the case to a federal judge to issue an "ex parte" writ to seize private property containing physicians' private and personal information.

    An ACLU attorney would have a field day with the ABIM and ABMS for the violations committed.

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  18. Anony 1:45PM CST -

    While the photograph caption on the ABMS website lists Ms. Langdon as an "MD," the biography below the picture lists Ms. Langdon as "Lynn O. Langdon, MS." According to ZoomInfo, Ms. Langdon earned her undergraduate degree from Dickinson College and has a master's degree in Measurement and Evaluation Techniques of Educational Research from the University of Pennsylvania. She is not a physician.

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  19. Well, I'd like to offer the info that the American Board of Surgery is not any different than the ABIM. MOC now is much more frequent and entails only local day-trips for the big computer exam every 10 years (as opposed to longer travel and expenses in the past), but the cost certainly did not go down. Fits with everything else, right? Let's not forget that this issue has effects outside of medical practice. I am retired due to disability after 30 years of practice and certification. It is essentially not possible to get a good administrative job without Board certification - doesn't matter that I can never be a clinical physician again. Do the Boards account for such a circumstance or make any allowance for such a category of physician? Can you say "HELL NO"? One STILL gets to spend the big bucks for something with questionable relevance at best. There surely is a rat somewhere in the works.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Pennsylvania Law on use of the "F" word.
    Or does the ABIM claim domicile in Iowa concerning use of the word fraud?

    “Fraud consists in anything calculated to deceive, whether by single act or combination, or by suppression of truth, or a suggestion of what is false, whether it be by direct falsehood or by innuendo, by speech or silence, word of mouth, or look or gesture.”

    I believe there is a ample legal basis to use the word fraud in relation to the ABIM under state law.

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  21. Well spoken. The truth of what the ABIM does to EVERYONE is heard and felt around with world with Wes' informative blog.

    The ABMS IS disabling and debilitating. There certainly IS more than one rat in the works!

    There's no relevance to the ABMS anymore. There is no faith in them. They killed all that might have been good long ago.

    They are hollow men and women at the top of the middle bureaucratic ranks ruining medicine and health care for millions of Americans. Yes, the ABMS process and payment plan is a scam.

    These hollow ones are highly suspect and questionable people with marginal relevance in society at best.

    The hollow people sold out for what is most important to them. Go figure out what that is.

    It's not the good people of a city who are to blame. It's a handful of bleached- out elites towering above the skyline always hurting folks by trying to be bigger than they really are.

    They are the most hollow and shallow of them all. So long to the "hollow men."

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  22. MOC is a CROC of TOC controlled by MOCSTERS.
    Just STOP the TOC of MOC and SHUT it DOWN.

    Repeat seven times and turn slowly in a circle widdershins.
    (50% efficacy rate to SHUT DOWN MOC; 100% if you STOP paying them.)

    from "Magical Rites and Incantations to End Jabbermocy."

    Keep MOC out of the EU! Stop it NOW!

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  23. To anonymous on the use of the "F" word in Philadelphia:

    Silence is golden, except when you are trying to hide something.
    Ergo, ABIM's slippery silence is fraud.

    Read PA law concerning fraud above.

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  24. You know, it would be appropriate and it would fit the crimes committed if the most egregious of the ABMS/ABIM offenders were tried and several of them went to prison.

    Restoration of money to physicians and the government is an important outcome to seek.

    But when I look at who they are and what they are doing, I see those buildings which tower away from real life and ordinary simple goodness of average people is already a prison.

    And the way all the executives have to hide away or cower in fear is an payment and admission of guilt. Even though they are unable to openly speak.

    "So long" is right!

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  25. Unionize and take the ABMS to Court.Wed Dec 09, 05:22:00 PM CST

    25% of physicians are nearing 60 years of age or older and treated insincerely and totally demeaned by the ABMS; they are fed up and ready to speed up departure/retirement from the medical field unless the ridiculous red tape and MOC requirements go!

    For the other 75% they are so fed up and already forming a union to stomp all over the ABMS, Joint Commission, Insurers, and CMS to name just a few. Look around at your colleagues; that's your union.

    Have you noticed the new co-pays for seeing specialists now required by some insurers. Patients don't have the extra money to pay or don't want to. "I'll just see my primary doctor, my NP or PA."

    Insurers are pulling out of markets altogether forcing patients to scramble for new insurance or pay the Gov. penalty. Not many patients know how to choose. The choices are getting fewer. The deductibles rising. Coverage shrinking.

    It is mass confusion. The ABMS is part of the mass confusion that is destroying healthcare. It is a tacked on "measure" that is totally unnecessary.

    There is only one professional class that can save it. It's not the medical bureaucrat; they are ruining it. It's the physician that can revive healthcare.

    Only the strength of advocacy and combined lobbying power of a physicians' union can have effective voice for repairing the broken.

    The AMA is dwindling in numbers and support from physicians; and they don't even claim advocacy for physicians anymore. They don't even pretend. Here's how they present themselves.

    "As the nation's largest physician group, AMA advocates on the issues vital to the nation's health and health care system."

    First course of business: assemble a talented legal team and start beating up these criminals that are strong-arming you by taking them to court.

    There is an awful lot of money to recover from these ABMS bastards. Smart lawyers will see it. They only need the key facts to get started.

    The government might take the money first, so you better hurry, because they have already been preparing their cases. It takes them years, whereas this is a case that could be presented in a matter of months. There's so much dirt at the ABMS, they will settle faster than you think. They don't want their filth made public.

    Just put the truth out there for all to see how rotten they are. That will be the first easy battle won toward the ultimate victory.


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  26. With all the harm that has been inflicted on physicians in America there is every reason to sue the ABIM and ABMS. If we sue the ABIM, we will own the ABMS and the ABIM foundation "piggy bank."

    That money in the "piggy" was stolen from physicians. Therefore, it belongs exclusively to physicians. Let's start a union with that stolen cash. Then we can start our own credit union with the money.

    Maybe call it the Physicians Union Bank.(PUB) Well, PUB seems to also beg for our own publications and journals.

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  27. Folks seem to say over and over that the ABIM Foundation "money transfers" were fraudulent and that some even use the term "money laundering" for it.
    I think that could be quickly proven without any additional evidence.


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  28. Start new organization with real physicians leading, but only if it is necessary. We can't allow the ABMS "mobster-type" in medicine ever again. We don't need another useless bureaucracy that strong-arms for money and filters real physicians out of the doctor/patient exchange.

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  29. We need to get a court order and put a freeze on that huge accumulation of money in the ABIM Foundation before others do. Reclaim all the stolen assets.

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  30. We should get class action attorneys ask them to get a federal judge to sign an ex-parte writ to seize the assets of the ABIM Foundation, immediately. That is the true meaning of such a court order--an ex-parte writ to seize. It's for the purpose of getting your property back.

    An ex-parte writ to seize property should not be used for un-provable ownership of copyright. ABR stupidly folded on that in 2010 because a peaceful old man was strong-armed into submission. We know what threats they made. We know what really happened. That's not the rule of law, but the rule of thugs.

    Dr. Fisher's blog speaks the truth about that!

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  31. There are a lot of good attorneys in Philadelphia and Chicago. Ones much better than the ABIM's. Much better than the ABMS'.

    Let's put together the best legal teams. We need good attorneys that know how to use the media well. Bring the fight to the public. It is ultimately about the patient, the public.

    We must fight for the patients that are being harmed by this heartless bureaucracy. Bring the fight home. It should be a fight on behalf of the patients who are being underserved by the corrupt bureaucracy that is in the way.

    Battle the case for our rights in the light, not in the darkness. The ABIM and ABMS are afraid of the light, because the truth will bury them for good. They know it.

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  32. In comparison to the ABMS fraud, MOC is such a silly distraction. It is secondary. That's the kind of game the ABMS plays. They occupy your time, demand your money. Always more of the same; head fakes and distractions.

    A dollar pie with a dollop of lies.

    I'm tired of playing head games. We must hit them with the power of the law and take back our money. That means a legal punch right to the belly. These flabby ABMS fraudsters need to be put away once and for all.

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  33. We all need to fight; really fight and not just blow air.

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  34. The whole concept of compensating board members is antithetical to the ABIM and ABMS time-bound humanitarian missions. The article of incorporation allowed for amendments and changes, but the founding members of the ABIM and ABMS did not intend for the organization to become its opposite.

    It went from non-pecuniary to a for-profit organization with a complete and utter corruption of the founding father's (board members') intent. Executive positions were created which sickeningly became endowed with lavish inurement packages in exchange for corporate/political manipulation of physicians and the public.

    This was not and should not be today the purpose of the ABIM and ABMS at all.
    But it is, and it has even gotten worse. A look behind the scenes shows how vile and vindictive the protocol has become in order to hold on to that money and power.

    A blogger sharing earlier on this posting was right. They will not let it go easily.
    It is conspiracy upon conspiracy without end.

    Only physicians can end it by withholding support and suing the ABIM/ABMS and never enabling such a horrid state of affairs to disable medicine again.
    There must be a clear patient bill of rights just as there should be a bill of rights for physician.

    The red lines of decency have been crossed. There can be no going back. Just look at what they have done to medicine.


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  35. Wes, that condo belongs to physicians! Let the ABIM provide shelter for out of work physicians who have conscience and don't want to pay the MOC fees or who did not pass any of the ABMS's bogus tests.

    Look at the dismal pass/fail rates. The ABIM is deliberately creating a doctor shortage, because they refuse to change. They also engaged in engineering what kinds of physicians we have in the future and how medicine is delivered and who gets more and who gets less resources.

    Greed and luxury eat up the BULK of finances at the ABMS. They give little heed to creating relevant, straightforward tests that physicians can pass. Therefore, the ABIM can start housing some of the physicians they "cripple or disable" with their obfuscated wording of straightforward medical science. (They also made it so obtuse just in order to be copyrightable.)

    Any university could produce a good test that physicians could pass. And they could make the requirements, time, travel and costs reasonable. The ABIM does not do this, therefore they are corporate criminals that continue to take. (Folks say they take so much they can be considered to be "on the take.")

    Even now they are discussing, as we speak, creative ways to take even more money and time from physicians and restrict access to resources and time in regard to patients who suffer from shortages of all kinds.

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  36. If they can't sell a condo, how can they sell MOCThu Dec 10, 06:51:00 PM CST


    Charles P. Kroll ‏@CharlesPKroll
    #ABIM Fun Fact Dec 9
    Condo Open House Sunday http://goo.gl/dpIbL3
    Virtual Tour http://goo.gl/AuZr2c

    Answer: they are cheaters and frauds.
    Not even the real estate agents or buyers trust them.

    "Yes, the asking price is a little steep."

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  37. Dr Wes..

    49 days and it will be ONE year since ABIM "clearly got it wrong".

    Now... Amazingly... ABIM is taking a *poll* of MOC and the "secure" exam.

    see ABIM website.(Can you say collecting names?)

    Despite..

    24000 internists saying NO
    ACR saying NO
    AGA saying NO
    AACE saying NO
    Transformimg ABIM saying NO
    AAPS saying NO

    They are looking for A N Y O N E to say yes.

    Almost one year and NOW they PRETEND nothing is going on. SERIOUSLY ????

    "WHAT? ... Someone has a problem with OUR MOC and EXAM ?....WE never heard that before."

    They could be in psychotic denial...or they just LIARS.


    Keep stalling Dr. Baron... You really must think we're idiots.

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  38. The Year that Broke the Backs of the ABMS

    The pretense and silence of the ABIM's elitist attitude toward physicians is driving a wedge between docs working in the trenches and the "quality assurance" tacticians in the tower calling out the moves.

    The result of the ongoing war?

    Docs are left with less and less with which to fight the ongoing battles against death and disease. They are in a forced march sloshing bootless through the political mud and cold drenching rain.

    The elitist strategy?

    Austerity, scorched earth politics and the status quo of personal greed. All at the expense/sacrifice of patient/physician needs.

    The elite "Barons of the world" yell from their windows get back in your ranks. But it is too late. The rank-n-file docs have had enough; they are walking home throwing off abrasive uniformity, decades of coercive control, and the falsity of the bureaucracy of MOC.

    "We are going home," they say, "from the long winter of our discontent."

    Years of disgust and hapeless discontent!

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  39. repeats the command three times from high on the back of his horse,
    louder and more desperate with each enunciation.

    "Get back in your ranks! Get back in your ranks! Get back in your ranks!"

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  40. Toward a more perfect union! Thousands of Italian Doctors go on strike protesting cuts to medical services. (Except for emergency services.)
    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-doctors-idUSBRE96L0FO20130722

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  41. How many physicians are there that advocate suing the ABMS and ABIM? Are all of them really unaware of the suit that the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons brought against it already for antitrust violation and restraint of trade? Rather than just talking about suing in a blog why not join the fight and get behind the AAPS suit.

    A physician in Puerto Rico was actually sued by the ABIM for his participation in the Arora course and his board certification was revoked -- as of today he is not listed on the ABIM website (as either certified or not) as if he never took the exam. The suit by the ABIM was just thrown out and now is the defendant in a counter suit. The account available on pacer.gov is a very enlightening read (Case 3:15-cv-01016-JAG)

    These bullies can be taken to court and it seems be beaten.

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