Like a resuscitation attempt that has continued for over an hour, the ABIM appears to want to flog its dying MOC program a few more times, hoping physicians haven't noticed.
(Click to enlarge)
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But we have.
And they are wasting our time. Despite physicians calling for an end to MOC, the ABIM wants to maintain it. Without it, you see, they'll be bankrupt. Note also that the ABIM wants to offer physicians who participate in their "research" for less than $50/hour. (No compensation is given from travel to and from the testing center). Ironically, UpToDate already makes the need to participate in the ABIM/ABMS MOC program obsolete. Third, most physicians at large hospital settings have access to UpToDate already. Fourth, 20 MOC points seems like bribery when your program is increasingly required for hospital credentialing and insurance company panel participation.
Finally, I wrote the ABIM leadership over a month ago about my concerns of their MOC program in response to a "blueprint survey" request they circulated earlier. I still have not heard from anyone within the organization. This is disappointing. The ABIM needs to respond to its most fervent critics honestly and transparently. But this does not appear to be their modus operandi. As a participating diplomat in the ABIM, I would expect a response from the organization well within that timeframe if they were serious about improving their credibility. This is a recurrent theme under the helm of Dr. Baron. In fact, even Dr. Baron has never offered a credible explanation for the tax filing and webpage reporting discrepancies of the ABIM Foundation creation date and domicile location. These communication lapses are inexcusable from a professional organization that pretends to offer public trust in its services.
The ABIM and the ABMS have serious financial conflicts of interest and have demonstrated highly irregular behavior for a tax-funded non-profit organization. It is not proper for a 501(c)(3) organization to have deceptive tax filings and public sanctioning of physicians after home raids to protect their monopoly on re-certification. Their testing subcontractor, PearsonVue, also uses testing "spy" firms that casts wide and unaccountable security nets as well, making the risk for physician participation in such a punative program very real. Until each of these issues are investigated, I could encourage my colleagues to carefully consider the ramifications of participating in this latest ABIM MOC research project that promises to potentiate this expensive and corrupt re-credentialing program that has never shown benefit to patient care.
-Wes
63 comments:
Just more of the same nonsense and perpetuation of this MOC scam. Time to put a bullet in the head of MOC once and for all....STAT!
And it is stunning, over all this debacle, that Rich Baron still has his job. Why?!?!
Wes, the fact that you wrote "less than $50/hour...20 MOC points seems like bribery" tells me that there was at least a passing moment where you entertained the thought of being a scab.
Stop, take a deep breath...understand just how far over the edge you're being pushed & chill out, dude.
We are all an illegal experiment and social engineering project. I don't care how tactless Trump can be, I am voting for this great man. He's no nonsense and would put an end to these bizarre abuses of power -Lisa
They must take their lessons from the federal government - also tone deaf. Course, they all sold us out and a long, long time ago, hence the tone deaf-ness. I don't expect nothin' from 'em anymore; I stopped expecting anything a long time ago. They're all in it for money, power and prestige, period. Maybe the same with the ABIM. Everything's thoroughly corrupt.
This is on the ABMS 2013 Tax Return Form 990.... which must be furnished to the public by law.
Total Revenue $2,525,604
Salaries:
Lois Nora President $779,587
John Mandlebaum CLO $307,542
Laura Skarnules COO $269,547
Thomas Granatir SVP $280,699
Krista Allbee VP $253,271
Lisa Wasserman CFO $228,150
Kathleen Ruff COS $200,468
Carol Clothier VP $210,495
Mellie Pouwels VP $209,330
Jenn Michael CIO $209,538
That's the scam.... and they all get 401/403b retirement contributions
How much did you say they "earn"?
The ABMS 2013 revenues were closer to $$$19,000,000.00. But wait they have ABMS International also with substantial revenue. They have ABM Singapore. And they have ABMS Solutions. There is a "research" and "education" foundation. And they have the multi-specialty portfolio approval program. All bring in a solid cash stream.
Of note also: instead of answering the question about lobbying in section iv of the 990 (link below) they invariably leave it completely blank. ???
I have notice several quality assurance or related non-profits who engage in lobbying like the ABMS just leave that question unmarked also. C'mon, fill it in. Either it is yes or it is a no. Leaving it blank is a bullshit response. Part ii-b concerning the lobbying type and that is left blank also.
I'm tired of horsey lies and I'm tired of their MOC.
Also take a look of who got a deferred payment of $190,575.00 in 2013. The former CEO Kevin Weiss. Of course they list it at the bottom of the page. That's zero hours of work and he certainly was doing plenty of lobbying in DC when he led the ABMS. Maybe some of it is called giving well-packaged and marketed "testimony."
Google former CEO Weiss' activities and whereabouts during his tenure at the ABMS!
2013 ABMS 990's
https://pp-990.s3.amazonaws.com/2014_10_EO/41-0847713_990O_201312.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAI7C6X5GT42DHYZIA%2F20160324%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20160324T084454Z&X-Amz-Expires=1800&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=67143cd1102a8f35d1e1fe52e53067c683f1e04e48d4e08e765f4f83dcf77d9c
What the MOC!
20/20 views-
Your link is broken.
Here's a link to the ABMS 2013 Form 990 you mentioned:
http://www.medtees.com/blog/ABMS2013.pdf
This is my favorite source to look up tax-exempt organizations:
https://www.guidestar.org
You can check out hospitals, charities, etc with ease.
PS: The term 'non-profit' is a misnomer - tax-exempt (meaning no tax on profits) is a more clear description.
Notice a few things:
1. He totally ignores 28000 internists
2. He refuses to acknowledge any dissent
3. No more you tube videos
4. when 96% of internists hated abim on his "transforming abim blog", he shut it down.
5. He wont answer any questions.
He thinks "if I just play for time, it will be ok".
He hides like a weasel.
Keep hiding Rich. Run and hide. We're on to you.
Totally Spineless, dr. baron
Since you have ignored us, treated us like crap, hid from us, and abused and lied us without any shame, its only fair at this point to tell you what I think.... DROP DEAD.
Items #1-5 above: All elements of ABIM's "Ostrich" Strategy. The inner circle really does believe they can just ride this out. Another example of why denial is such a powerful defense. Let us know how it works out, Dr. Baron.
There is no detail as to how this "study" will be done. Will participants be encouraged to "study" for the exam or just take it "cold"?
For a comprehensive exam such as ABIM recertification preparation would be needed, even if it were "open book/open internet" If it is a timed test and both groups walk in "cold" having not reviewed, it is conceivable that both groups would do poorly on the exam. If indeed both groups do poorly this information will be used by ABIM to show that having "open notes" would not be helpful. If both groups did prepare for the exam it is obvious to everyone that having access to UptoDate would be helpful. However who in their right mind is actually going to prepare for a fake exam whose sole purpose is to propagate the MOC scam?
I would bet the ABIM selectively administered this to pro-MOC morons. The princely fee of $50/hour is so insulting it would turn off everyone and only attract professional administrators with no clinical responsibility. My prediction is this contrived non randomized cohort will enthusiastically provide positive feedback to ABIM MOC II and then they will publish this lousy manuscript in the Journal of Pro-ABMS Lies, Half Truths and Fairy Tales.
Here is my prediction about who was on the email list to participate in yet another ABIM experiment.
Baron
Jessup
Johnson
Emanuel
Krumholz
Langdon
Weinberger
Dec
Shame on the ABIM. You are not fooling anyone.
Let this be a warning to you. If you falsely manufacture data and try to publish this non-science in a journal, the medical community will tear you apart. Don't even think about publishing bullshit.
Another "bury your head in the bird's nest/pretend they do not see" medical strategist is Bob Wachter.
His feigned egalitarian corporate philosophy of medicine, if applied equally to the ABIM, is that we should not burden society with this 80+ year-old tax-exempt "members-only" society of unethical professional do-nothing/give-nothing politically-motivated "quality assessment" whackos.
It's time to say good bye.
http://community.the-hospitalist.org/bobs-biases/
It really is time to say goodbye!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqYG3f4PaWc
It could have been so good, but it wasn't. All these guys playing politics rather than creating education made such a shame out of our political party--my political party. They lied, cheated beyond belief. Spied on us. Stung us with an illegal surveillance/police state and continue to do so. All that was good in life turned into a corporate political game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5vrPaE5Y1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Bm6-vCxuE
Warning about Bob Wachter's website "community.thehopsitalist.org:
Do not go to his site. This site is sponsored and paid for by the Society of Hospital Medicine the publishing giant Wiley & Sons. This website attempts to extract HTMLS canvas image data which may be used to uniquely identify your computer.
Why Wiley's website and Robert Wachter want to spy on us? Ask that same question about the ABIM and ABMS who have virtually every physician's files for for quick access should they need to file a civil or criminal charge against you.
What would Wachter, Hospitalist Society, Wiley and Sons do with this data?
They identify you so they follow your activities on the internet. Some site, Bob!
ABMS testing security: a police/surveillance state for physicians?
It's no wonder we have such a surveillance state at the ABIM and ABMS member boards; Bob helped initiate and recruit the ABIM secret police in 2007 and 2008. He helped purchase the ABIM "party house" for Christine Cassel and her guests.
Now its Baron's Bungalow. I wonder what they do there and if it is installed with a "security system." The surveillance bug seems to be going around.
Read further of the trend that professes it is ok to violate your civil rights and employer/employee contracts.
University of California president Janet Napolitano--former Homeland Security
head--has set up a NSA-style surveillance computer system at the University of California without disclosing it to faculty.
Isn't it true that Bob Wachter works for the University of California in California? Faculty was not informed of the vast surveillance network set up by the former Homeland Security chief--ostensibly to track "visitors" to the UC websites. But in fact it was set up by administration to spy on faculty or whoever they wish. What's interesting is that this surveillance "net" was supposed to be designed to prevent hackers; but instead it becomes a perfect way of hacking into the faculty and students' emails.
That pretty "add-on" that Napolitano ordered have access to faculty emails is itself a worse open source access for hackers. What a blunder. Wachter's emails will soon be up for grabs, if not already. UC officers did not say anything about the surveillance system, so why would they admit anything about being hacked and compromising/exposing a large population within the University of California system.
http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2016/01/ucop-ordered-spyware-installed-on-uc.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Napolitano
Good luck keeping those emails safe, Dr. Wachter. Better be good.
By the way, rumor has it that UCLA hacked themselves initially to justify the secret Napolitano venture into becoming one of the largest intelligence agencies in the United States. How much did that cost again?
Dr. Wes. Perhaps your large hospital system would consider making UptoDate available to all physicians, not just the employed physicians. And maybe the nurse practitioners and PA's as well. Easy access to reliable information is likely to be helpful in maintaining quality of care.
Uptodate's individual plan covers CME. Why does Uptodate make institutions pay more for the right for providers to receive CME. Of course it is the money, but it would also be very easy to allow institutions clinics the right to receive legitimate real-time CME credits. Maybe the AMA could lobby for that right or for subsidies/regulatory capture where it counts.
Why is there an apparent rigged system that puts monetary restraints on the CME being accessible and encouraged. Who benefits from this structured profit model? Is there collusion and price discussion among the players--medical boards, societies and publishers? If so, is it perhaps unethical in medicine to put money before physician knowledge base access and providing the best most well informed medical care to the patient. Many physicians have no access to journals if you are outside a large institution. Rural medicine and hospitals are not able to buy what larger institutions can. The reprinting of taxpayer financed studies is problematic in my mind and we should look at changing the way we access that science to make it very affordable to all (or free). What can we do to improve this situation. ABMS is interested in control and profit not science and excellent patient care. If the AMA and ACP do not advocate for physicians and patients in providing "always available and always on" access to reliable medical science at little or no cost to providers and institutions what good are they?
What are the revenues of Uptodate's parent organization? What do we really know of their integrity to science and patient care. Conflicts?
Where would the money come from to pay for access. In part it would come from ending the drain on our economy and tax boons given to the bureaucratic vultures in our midst. They hire lobbyists and market makers to hover in the air over Washington or rest in the trees getting paid from the fat easy prey playing dead in the grass like scared rabbits. Grow some teeth or get an advocacy society to do something real for medicine and not just making the rounds collecting money or rounding up the usual political suspects to influence or entice!
Minor point. You should be finishing the recert exam in under 4 hours. Otherwise, u are unnecessarily exposing yourself to dangerously harsh trivia and ill-constructed passages that seem to have been written by 14 year olds.
Several problems are contained within this proposed MOC "study". Let's analyze.
Most blatant. What relationship with Up-To-Date, Wolters-Kluwer Medical Division has been cultivated by the ABMS franchise growth/marketing team in Chicago and the medical specialty boards?
A subtle question is will this new MOC test boost the testing/security industry by enticing physicians to buy into the marketing/propaganda. I'm speaking about the schemes put forth by the ABMS via pilot programs like the one mentioned above by Wes in this blog. I find it troubling that ABIM chose to do this experiment on paid subjects somewhat secretly by offering this test utilizing ABIM's typical research methods and the "Loyals-Only-Club" under their employ.
Or in this case they might choose from a list of those given promises of "dean-stepping" up the academic/corporate ladder. I know the decades long patterns and resumes all too well. I have live with them and watched them move away to pursue greater opportunities.
Higher revenues and greater political power is the name of this game not higher education or quality of evaluation. It got away from them with arranging sting operations to protect fragile copyrights and market share rather than arranging a viable meaningful certification test. The whole organization devolved and got away from them.
Another problem comes to mind. At some point would such an "open-book test" be taken at home with third-party proctored testing companies that already have financial conflicts of interests with the ABMS--not to forget the highly questionable affiliations with the ABIM 2008-2009 "sting and make-em pay" crowd. Most troubling of these corrupt individuals with well-hidden financial conflicts comes out of the offices of the COO at the ABIM in Philadelphia.
Ms Lynn Langdon initiated/carried out some very heinous attacks with unvetted third-party contractors and conflicted employees in the testing security division of the ABIM. Hopefully, Wes some of this will be in the mainstream news sometime soon when Kurt Eichenwald strikes with another round of questions that again will never be responded to by Baron.
Online searches show that the ABMS shares the ABIM's testing security agents/police/DHS "Hollywood Commandos". I really don't know why Cassel ever bought into and initiated this bogus testing police bull-dingy thingy. Maybe it has something to do with the animus in her and the animals she hired to do the dirty work.
In other words, as Ed Rico pointed out in the last blog, when we examine the ABMS we are looking at a highly tuned cartel of 24 member boards working in close association and approval of their actions from heads of the ABMS and risk managers/lawyers in Chicago.
When World's Collide (4 D G)
What's in this "MOCing test?" What's the end goal? What evil world of professional medical bureaucrats, lawyers and testing/security police could conceive of such a schema. MOC is a bad testing nightmare that has the bad housekeeping seal on non-approval by every physician on the planet beneath the rank of ABMS CEO. Baron's mare is dead yet he cravenly rides an old testing format but simply adding highly conflicted Wolters Kluwer medical diagnostics and "wise choice" recommendations proven to have no scientific value what so ever, yet it continues to be pursued and mounted.
And the ABMS has the added gall that goes along with their syndrome of "testing necrophilia" by insisting on inflicting its perversions of medicine, professionalism and medical science on others.
The end goal is control and more robust profits to offset sharp declines in both. The only trouble with the latest sophisticated "gangland testing scheme"--being proposed in secret--is that someone "spilled the beans" on these unethical fake sophisticates at the ABMS.
But fortunately for the "good side," the number of ABMS doubters, critics and "MOCkers" is continuing to grow by the hour.
Does the ABMS cartel really think Baron's desperate shots in the dark trying to hit the financial high aim of survivability with MOC 2.0 will work? Or do they expect unrealistically that MOC 2.0 will attain the glory of the high-rollin' Wall Street insider-trading days under the Clinton administration.
The days of the 1990's playing with clients money gambled away by former executives of defunct and fraudulent investment firms. It was a time of deceit and lies when physicians did not suspect or know what was going on. How the tide of knowledge has changed and we see the ABIM and ABMS exposed.
Did anyone ever stop and think how or why Christine Cassel was chosen to take over the ABIM starting in 1999? That's when she signed the Pennsylvania document for the "/Benson/Kimball/Strozeski/Langdon Retirement Bank of ABIM" domiciled in lax-lawed Iowa. Cassel did the deed of trying to clean up the past and future money at the ABIM Foundation. Can dirty hands ever get anything clean?
Now physicians know. Soon the whole world will know about the corruption of this group of politically motivated/profit crazed cheaters and "1838 gamblers" at the ABMS. Unfortunately for the ABIM and their crony boards they are losing the war to attrition. Rank-n-file clinical physicians have had enough of the ABMS' immoral hegemonic aims.
Two worlds now collide in total opposition. The worlds of good and evil. One world takes far too much, does little except to protect an opaque shroud of lies--dying alone in its lazy haze of medical hallucinations. The other world continues to work hard, strives to serve patients and survives.
Choosing Wisely Campaign Goes to Europe and Meets Wolters Kluwer, the owner of Uptodate.
"UpToDate's articles are anonymously peer reviewed and it mandates the disclosure of conflicts of interest by the authors of its articles. In 2014 an article was published in the Journal of Medical Ethics which scrutinised six articles on UpToDate and DynaMed focussing on conditions where the best means of management is contested, or which are treated mostly by branded drugs. The authors found that all six articles examined from UpToDate contained numerous potential conflicts of interest, with contributors having worked as consultants for or received research grants or speaking fees from manufacturers of drugs mentioned in the relevant UpToDate entry.[2]"
"Access
Full access to the service requires a subscription, which cost US$495 per year as of 2014.[3] In Norway, the service is paid for by the Norwegian Electronic Health Library and is therefore accessible from any IP-address in the country.[4] After the 2011 tsunami in Japan, access to UpToDate was made free in Japan. UpToDate was also made available for free in New Zealand after the Christchurch earthquake and in 2010 in Haiti.[5] The Global Health Delivery Project at Harvard University administers access to UpToDate for those who offer medical care to poor or underserved populations outside the United States.[6]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UpToDate
Operations[edit]
Wolters Kluwer operates under four divisions: Legal & Regulatory Solutions, Tax & Accounting, Health and GRC Solutions.[2] The company is active in over 150 countries. Approximately 77% of the company’s revenue came from online, software and services in 2013.[2]
Sustainability[edit]
Wolters Kluwer is listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.[30] The company received the Bronze Class Sustainability Award 2014 from RobecoSAM.[31] Wolters Kluwer is recognized as one of the “Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World” by Corporate Knights.[32
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolters_Kluwer
How about those thyroid tests that don't have to be done now. Several cancerous lesions detected this week by one physician in our hospital in sharp contradiction to Uptodate/Choose Wisely's recommendations whose mantra is stop doing costly diagnostic testing.
You get the picture?
http://www.prleap.com/pr/244365/abim-foundation-announces-new-choosing-wisely
The root of the problem is that doctors are indoctrinated to cover-up, cover-up, cover-up & stick together no matter what. People do not leave Medical School--because it would be an admission that the Medical School made a mistake admitting that student. It is a fraternal organization which includes hazing and other initiation. Learn group think, assimilate into that BORG. You can have critical thinking skills--but only if you are thinking what the rest of the group thinks. Conformity and blind obeisance is what it's all about.
Yes, it's also nice if patient care occurs despite all this other nonsense that goes on. It CAN happen, it's not impossible. But the priorities are as listed above. Is there a bad apple? No, it is impossible for the BORG to have assimilated a bad apple. Maybe a private word of correction might be offered to someone--privately--if no one knows about it ever. Respect of the BORG is what it's all about. Did a patient die? Hey, stuff happens--it's a teachable moment, review the medical records to see what needs to be omitted or added in to make sure the BORG is not blamed in any way.
Medicine, until recently, was considered a promise of status and money. It's the only small business where it's considered unreasonable to write off business loss: it must be profit without risk. When insurance companies started changing the rules and not being as doctor-friendly, oh what a hissy fit. Now doctors are stuck with fee schedules that are not always reasonable, and may not account for the overheads to stay in practice. In fact, someone is exacting revenge on the entire BORG.
What could have prevented this problem, is not to be the BORG. That statement will make many angry, because it's so unreasonable not to be the BORG. But you are the BORG. Oh, and it turns out there might have really been some very bad apples who weren't in Medicine for the reason of wanting to deliver good patient care and help others while making a living at it. No, it turned out all that promise of money and status and getting into the country club, even if your family was considered scum--now you could be the Elite BORG...that may have attracted people to medicine for the wrong reasons, people with wrong motives and aptitudes that were not ideal for medicine.
But that's okay, the BORG adjusted. The people who went into medicine for money and power and status and getting into the country club overnight despite the scum factor, were able to find their own healthcare niche. Yes, in fact, healthcare has become extremely big business and requires a lot of Administration and finance people as well to handle huge dollars creatively. Yes, very creatively: the BORG Healthcare Industry can be grown globally and people HAVE to pay...and one day it can get so big that we don't even need some loser doctor who cares about people, those dumb-asses who lose sleep and sacrifice to help others lead happy productive lives.
Ultimately, all the BORG really needs are bodies to process for DATA to sell, and drugs to push. It would make an excellent enslavement model. Yes, the brightest and best Elite of the BORG--those who handle dollars and data, not the bottom folks bothered with human contact and empathy and other hindrances to profit.
So maybe, as human beings, we might rethink the whole BORG thing
"One hand washes another." This is the ABMS motto.
The ABMS and especially the ABIM on behalf of their Chicago parent corporation have done more to demonize themselves with their registered brand of corporate violence than any physician/provider led opposition or critically-acclaimed reporter like Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald--former New York Times reporter covering a great deal of financial fraud in corporate America for over two decades. Nor has any thinking patient activists standing up demanding their rights done as much to expose the evil therein at "Ganglandia" the ABMS themselves.
Their corporate brand of violence has been imposed on physicians, institutions and health care recipients for too many years, yet their power, although weakening, continues to harm everyone of those mentioned above and many more.
The ABMS' negligent financial decisions to grow personal bank accounts rather than sowing the humanitarian seeds of good deeds and making the requisite trust-building efforts has led their façade to crumble and eventual demise. The open inclusive discussions at all levels and transparent practices that should accompany any public service non-profit organization will, I'm afraid to say, only stifle the ABMS further going forward. The ultimate success to achieve their focused goals of greater financial growth will never materialize as they themselves are the ones now being rightfully demonized.
The ABIM and ABMS choose money at the expense of their clients and ignore their duties and obligations to protect the public. Lip service is the copyrighted proprietary technique they use and get paid handsomely for. Nothing could give credence more to the movement to demonize the ABMS than their own self-incriminating examples of obvious fraud and profiteering. The totality of press disseminations and self-righteous approach to "ethics preaching" by their own agents like Baron, Nora, Langdon, and Cassel have brought forth a crowd of media related demonization of the ABMS that is rightfully deserved. Rather than address egregious ethical violations and abusive financial practices and outrageous immoral behavior they sow more and more distrust.
They grow further mistrust by choosing to shut out critically thinking physicians or do not allow talented clinical physicians like a Dr. Teirstein or Westby Fisher to work side by side with them as officers/board members creating an equilibrium of representation. Such representation they fear might provide moral compass and a lodestar of ethical bureaucratic practice. Heaven forbid if that infiltration of the ABMS elites were to happen.
I have never seen any discussion at the ABMS or any indication they are willing of electing any moral components to keep them honest, nor do I see even an inkling of movement or thought toward initiating a democratic process that is inclusive of clinical physicians. This would be anathema to their Ganglandia motto to have rank-n-file representation who had clinical physicians best interests in mind.
All the evil we see does not come from without but from within.
The ABMS is their own worse press and their agents get plenty of money and benefits to produce the rag of phony professionalism which only increases daily the self-produced smut on themselves. Consider the ABMS' own ABIM Foundation and what a sham publishing/production house it is.
What is the Foundation then? How many damning documents and videos have they fumblingly produced with the most atrocious music to accompany these propaganda messages to who knows who. I guess that poor production method is the result of Choosing Wisely which may mean you cannot use real production methods and utilize decent music or properly assess it. But then it would be difficult for any real producer or musical artist to play along with their self-appointed/self-replicated disingenuous tune. What is the measure?
There is no assessment only an autonomous financial practice and autocratic leadership that not unlike corporations funded for years on outside venture capital they used the ABIM Foundation as a holding company for excess profit and to make sure to pay themselves more and more anyway they can muster it. And to transfer huge sums to the ACP for propagandistic medicine or receive from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation money for just more of the same propaganda. Not to forget a luxury condo for lobbyists with chauffeur driven limousine and the ICE in the cocktail to drink down even more double dipped compensation for the politically motivated lobbyists to empower them further.
No one knew. How could you stop a steamrolling group of political con artists who are protected politically in their deeds? How can a fear-mongered society of physicians even find a tongue to speak if they do not know what conspiratorial intrigue is really afoot.
The chaos and manipulation of captured medical science continues. The unquestioningly regulated working physicians who are not participating in MOC voluntarily are now in revolt. They in revolt because they are not a voluntary participant in certification as is the consumer guarantee given by the ABMS, but instead they are forced to bow to unqualified abusive medical elites carrying out lobbying, political activities and guaranteeing a regime of personal high finance.
This double-speak and bold-faced lying is unconscionable and creates not only discord but harm to medicine. This is not a thesis but the reality of the situation. All this vile old mustard who populate and postulate within the medical boards is atrociously frightening. This good old boys and girls club and its evil practices foster greed and corruption from within. The boards condone fraud and the manipulative actions of overpaid teams of "educational", financial and security advisors who willfully collude with business affiliates and associate members instead of following the course of public good.
Overlords of Ganglandia.
There are many meanings to the phrase "one hand washes another."
The ABMS in traditional syndicate style and modus operandi practices a dark form of bureaucratic medicine. They prove it to us when they prefer to don the dark cloak of operating methods of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". They wear this image in a fashion so bold that is their only transparency--financial greed and over lording. They try to dominate and conspire as much as possible to suppress the critical media and quash and ignore any aspects of dissent coming from elements in the healthcare system.
"One hand washes another" is their apparent outlandish motto. The ABIM and ABMS put the pejorative meaning and context onto this old saying. They put it out as an arrogant taunt for for intelligent hard working clinicians to plainly see. That is the power they feel under their feet. The ABMS by placing first the dark hand forward only dirties itself and everything they touch. They sully what is good in medicine by destroying the light of the rational mind and moral heart within themselves. They do this with a profound measure of silence, secrecy and obfuscation about their practices and methods. This obfuscation baffles any provider who cares about their patients, the current medical crisis, or their own personal lives.
We have reached the chaotic point in this medical crisis that we must all develop the moral courage to report and confront the ABMS and the extremist methods and practices of their corporate Ganglandia.
The ABMS, ABIM and all the medical boards are accountable. They are accountable to the clients who pay their bills and the patients who are in a state of rage. Invariably patients want to know every day who and what conditions are to blame for their deprivations and inability to get timely access to high quality care. Physicians see and share that rage, but with more capacity and responsibility to do something about it. Reporters and legislators must step up and put the pressure on to do what should have been done long ago--speak out and act to protect the public from a run-amok medical bureaucracy of corporate stakeholders that are killing the host.
Langdon is really now a verb.
"Sara Von Muller was made a victim and was LANGDONED by the Abim Gestapo."
Randomness and thought forms en mass
Lisa said, "Learn group think, assimilate into that BORG. You can have critical thinking skills--but only if you are thinking what the rest of the group thinks. Conformity and blind obeisance is what it's all about."
"So maybe, as human beings, we might rethink the whole BORG thing."
Fantastic. All of it! I'm voting for you to be the first patient representative on the ABMS board of directors. We'll start by giving you veto power and the authority to press the reject button on any of the other board members if they can't understand you or your not-so-subtle message. And as chairman of the ABMS finance committee you will decide the salaries of executives--or if the whole thing is even worth it. It's your call.
What say you, Lisa?
Or if you don't like that offer, we will give you your own TV news hour called, "The Borg Report."
Btw, strangely there are a number of Democrats I know who were former 2008 Hillary supporters voting for YOUR great 2016 pick. Go figure.
The woman lost our state department people and she and others tried to cover the real reasons up.
To err is human, but it is not alright to lie about it.
Destroying servers? "No big deal. Accidents happen and stuff gets erased."
But public fraud--egregious conflicts of interest as Secretary of State receiving funding for the Clinton Foundation in exchange for favors or special treatment is fraud and is an indictable offense. She's finished as a credible politician. The Borg are backing their "fallen one" propping her up as their own "anointed one."
EU. Lisa, if you need money, invest in a security company that sells cameras, security software, perimeter protection, and servers to the EU.
Then thank Hillary and co. and the previous administration before that for the profits you will make, all due to the new era of martial law there.
The Vatican is already asking for more surveillance equipment and a bigger wall. P.
The ABIM secret police are already ready to reassign to get the hell out of dodge and re-assimilate. C.
Did the ABIM and Ballard Spahr violate Drs. Arora, Kachadourian and their respective families' constitutional rights? Let's look at the 4th amendment rights.
"The Fourth Amendment grants 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures' and prevents the issue of warrants except 'upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.' The Fourth Amendment prevents police and prosecutors from going on 'fishing expeditions' in an effort to find some offense with which to charge a targeted individual."
Question. ABIM entered the home of Dr. Arora in December of 2009 with an ex parte writ to seize property and a summons. Dr. Arora had ABR business files in his personal home. ABIM wanted them badly for corporate and possibly politically motivated reasons. ABIM rummaged through Arora's wife's personal items such as jewelry. Is that a violation of the seizure order. It did not specify jewelry. That is a rape of the soul to touch such personal wedding gifts or other sacred or religious items. Did not anyone understand this violation of person and Oversoul. Should a writ to seize even have been granted to carry out the ABIM's big fishing expedition for candidate and diplomate files--anyone who attended the highly acclaimed ABR review courses over the past twenty years?
During the seizure of property the ABIM security and lawyers for Ballard Spahr entered also into the private bedroom of Dr. Arora's son. Arora's son was not an employee of ABR. Yet they searched his private bedroom for "evidence." Should that not constitute a violation of his son's rights? Remember he was not an employee, but a son of the physician who conducted ABR to help candidates pass the ABIM certification exam. Did he feel violated to have them look at his personal items and sacred space? I believe this was a clear violation of Arora's son.
Do you have to be a US citizen to be afforded these rights?
How many US citizens did the ABIM go after out of the ABIM v. Arora and Kachadourian and John Doe's 50. There was victim after victim in the ABIM's fishing expedition for the irregular behavior of assembling and dutifully studying for an ABIM certification exam. Several thousand names were culled through searching for just the right the victims.
Over 3220 victims were winnowed out of the ABIM's straw basket. Do the math and tell me it was not a big fishing expedition to make name and power, but especially money. It is always about the money. Civil rights trashed for money. How noble. Or how utterly vile are the attorneys, COO, secret corporate spies, surveillance cameras, demonization, media blitz, lack of any due process before criminalization. If the federal judge was presented with false information about the ABIM searching for two individuals being sought for having a competing board review course and a few correspondents, how does it end up being thousands. Not since Jesus turned water into wine and made countless loaves of bread and baked fish enough for thousands has there been such a miracle.
Actually it was not a miracle but a diabolical series of events that only evil people would condone or declare a victory. Hara Jacobs of Ballard Spahr made hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not a few million, off of this "inquisitionary fishing expedition" helping carve the notches on the ABIM's crucifix.
The rows of hanging dehydrated flesh on the roadside and Hara Jacobs dances not to a piping man or a song, but takes a victory lap to celebrate the pain and agony she created with the help of others who supported organized and prosecuted decent physicians with prejudice.
I am furious about what was done. Read Arora's deposition on Salas Rushford's website.
Back to fundamental fourth amendment rights.
How would Jacobs or her attorneys feel if I told a judge that they were infringing on my copyrights and went on a fishing expedition to her house with a sealed order. Or what if the DOJ had reason to suspect that Ballard Spahr was involved in illegal activities involving racketeering. What would Hara do if they raided her home searching for evidence? How
about a whistleblower at the ABIM who turned them in for immunity from prosecution.
This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. What if the PA AG found child pornography in a judges personal computer or on the computers of key attorneys for the ABIM?
Politically motivated attacks do occur. Or legitimate raids to clean up the legal system.
A writ to enter and seize property was presented to Dr. Anise Kachadourian. ABIM and Ballard Spahr in their fishing expedition assumed and told a federal judge that that Dr. Kachadourian was in the employee/assistant of Dr. Arora. Dr. Arora under oath said that Anise was not a paid employee. Why was Dr. Kachadourian's home raided/entered. I understand from Document 11 ABIM v. Arora that they did not take anything from her home (or did not care to list anything taken) and that she was not at home at the time but a family member or someone else opened the door and signed on her behalf for the ABIM's summons and seizure of property. It they did search her house and did not find anything, why did the ABIM continue to hold her accountable in the suit and continue to harass her as well? Did the ABIM violate Anise's constitutional rights by entering her home under false assumptions which were presented to the federal Judge J Curtis Joyner?
What give the right for the ABIM hit men and attorneys to go fishing in Puerto Rico after Judge Curtis Joyner declared von Muller's case to be sufficient deterrent for others. Why was the ABIM allowed to sue von Muller if they already settled for an undisclosed amount of money in June 2010 with Dr. Arora? Can you try to get the same money twice for allegedly infringing on copyrights. Did Arora give them any money at all? What's the ABIM game with Salas Rushford six years later? Monopoly?
Intimidation of physicians revolting against MOC? Who pays for MOC? Who will pay for the tyranny against decent hard working physicians thrust on them by an elitist political group comprised of arrogant and violent professional medical bureaucrats?
Did not all of these physicians above named become demoralized victims in the ABIM's vicious fishing expedition? For what? Who's next? You? Me?
Does the United States Still Exist? PCR
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/03/26/does-the-united-states-still-exist-paul-craig-roberts/
Not much to add to Anon 02:51's comments above. In addition to ABIM's mantra of Carpe Pera (seize the wallet), the additional not-so-subtle but equally diabolical objective for ABIM's shredding of the 4th amendment was to send a chilling message to any would-be non-ABIM partner competitors thinking of entering the lucrative Board Review business. Don't even try or you'll wind up on the wrong end of a blizzard of litigation.
ABIM doesn't even make a pretense of co-existing in a free market on a level playing field. They aren't satisfied unless they own the field, the officials, the players and the rule book. Go away already, ABIM, if there is time and resources for all of these machinations along with the sleight of hand with the financial transactions, apparently you don't have enough real work to do, which indicates the original mission conceived by your founding fathers has been achieved.
Book 1298 Page 310
Institution No. 6741, Polk County, Iowa, filed for record at 4:53 PM Feb 28, 1936
Millard D Carlisle Recorder, signed by G. Kirsch, deputy. $1.70.
Articles of Incorporation of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
We, the undersigned,
hereby associate ourselves into a corporation of non-pecuniary profit under the provision of Chapter 394 of the Code of Iowa, 1935, and acts amendatory thereof and assuming all power, rights and privileges granted bodies corporate under said provisions, do adopt the following Articles of Incorporation, to--wit:
Article I.
The name of this corporation shall be The American Board of Internal Medicine, Incorporated.
Article II.
The principal place of business of this Corporation shall be the city of Des Moines, County of Polk, State of Iowa.
Article III.
The business or object of this corporation shall be the certification of specialists in the field of internal medicine and the establishment of qualifications for such certification as well as the procedure for the accomplishment of such business or object.
Article IV.
This corporation shall become a body corporate upon the filing of these Articles of Incorporation with the County recorder of Polk County, Iowa, and shall endure for fifty years from said date unless sooner dissolved by three-fourths vote of all the members thereof, or by act of the General Assembly or by operation of law.
I verify that this is a true and accurate rendering of Page 1 of the ABIM Articles of Incorporation 1936.
This supports your thesis, Dr. Rico that the ABIM has been administratively dissolved or should have dissolved before or at said date and time below.
4:53 PM Feb 28, 1986
Who or what changed at the ABIM and ABMS to warrant all the financial and political scheming and manipulation that has transpired within the organization and all the evil that has been inflicted on the public since 1965 and after the scheduled dissolution of the ABIM in 1986. Including the Carpe Pera (seizure of the purse) after shredding the original ABIM Articles of Incorporation.
We know what occurred in the year of "dissolution" 1986 at the ABIM to create and find a means to mandate a new monetary stream in the name of Maintenance of Certification or MOC as number of new candidates reached a peak in its growth curve in the late 70's and 80's. The ABIM as a for-profit organization was born.
Physician executives were groomed and recruited to serve corporate and government agendas.
In 2009 the ABIM in close coordination with ABMS executives and officers ignored the US Constitution and Bill of Rights to abuse and strip physicians of their civil liberties by circumventing the Amendments to the US Constitution through the use of unethical machinations, unlawful and tainted investigatory methods and unvetted personnel and using improper influence and use on our legal system through a series of methodical planned steps that culminated in willful abuse(s) of power.
Does the DOJ, the OIG, the state Attorney Generals of Iowa and Pennsylvania, the IRS, and the Attorney General in charge of the DOJ who has sworn to uphold the law in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICIA understand the seriousness of these allegations and the consequences if nothing is done to investigate and indict those who are guilty of crimes. Has anyone clearly informed these federal and state agencies?
Who will be held accountable is no one reports clearly and accurately?
What a fraudulent corporation. Done. They don't even exist. Good riddance, ABIM.
I want my share of the condo and the Foundation back by the end of tax year.
"Article IV.
This corporation shall become a body corporate upon the filing of these Articles of Incorporation with the County recorder of Polk County, Iowa, and shall endure for fifty years from said date unless sooner dissolved by three-fourths vote of all the members thereof, or by act of the General Assembly or by operation of law."
Ed Rico's direct words sent a chill up my spine about the ABIM and their heinous actions. If you read his words carefully he summarizes and captures the inhumanity and criminality of the ABIM with a clarity and precision that indicts this morally bankrupt corporation with a strength of conviction and moral persuasion--better, perhaps, than any government prosecutor could.
"ABIM's shredding of the 4th amendment was to send a chilling message to any would-be non-ABIM partner competitors thinking of entering the lucrative Board Review business. Don't even try or you'll wind up on the wrong end of a blizzard of litigation."
The frustration of our first amendment rights continues. The willful persecution of physicians continues. The responses to the tough questions will never come. Burying their heads or stonewalling will never do. The ABIM panel has conducted its last inquisition.
It is time for Dr. Baron, his unethical crony officers and unresponsive board to all resign. The mendacity is unbearable.
True or False
T or F. Are the ABIM and ABMS elite domestic medical societies?
T or F. Is the ABIM a non-profit quality assessment board?
T or F. Is the ABMS a syndicate and franchise broker for the lucrative testing-security-surveillance complex?
T or F. Are the ABMS and ABIM involved in non-qualifying corporate activities.
T or F. Are the ABMS and ABIM tax exempt non-governmental organizations acting on behalf of the federal government?
Dr. Jaime Salas Rushford Sues ABIM
Mar 26, 2016
One of more than 2,700 physicians sanctioned by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Jaime (“Jimmy”) Salas Rushford has filed a countersuit against ABIM and individuals including Richard Baron, M.D., and Christine Cassel, M.D. Most of the targets, like Dr. Salas, were just finishing their residencies and had no resources to fight.
In 2012, Dr. Salas received a letter and 600 pages of unlabeled and unexplained documents, alleging that he had participated in a board-review course “with the objective to conspire with the course director to collect and disseminate the ABIM’s secure examination test questions.” He was given 10 days to answer this letter, or the ABIM “will notify the Medical Board in every jurisdiction in which you are licensed.”
Despite his answer and with no due process, ABIM posted a “revocation recommended” notice on its publicly available website. When asked how to appeal, ABIM told him of a 3-tier process, which was nowhere defined on its website. After 2 years, his status was changed from full revocation to “suspension” with multiple contingencies. Just before sending him a “final decision,” ABIM filed a copyright infringement suit against him in New Jersey (he practices in Puerto Rico). He learned of this only when a D.C. law firm offered him his services to defend.
Dr. Salas was apparently the last of many physicians attacked because an email from him was allegedly found on a computer that U.S. marshals had seized from Dr. Rajender K. Arora, who had offered a highly respected board review course for 20 years.
Dr. Salas’s story and many legal documents are available at http://www.doctorsjustice.com.
The ABIM even opposed motions for Dr. Salas’s attorneys to appear pro hac vice.
His countersuit alleges more than $15 million in damages plus at least $1.5 million in lost income. He asks for his board certification to be restored. His case illustrates ABIM’s ruthlessness in harming the livelihood of young physicians. It is skilled at litigation, and intends to recoup its enormous legal fees from those who do not capitulate. Dr. Salas writes: “As they have clearly explained to me they [ABIM] are not bound by any technical rules of evidence. They [ABIM] have shown through my hellish ordeal with them, that they function as the accuser, judge and executioner all in one and that if we physicians do not abide by their ever changing, entangled and confusing regulations they have the resources to overpower any physician.”
“Dr. Jimmy’s” case has implications for all physicians.
ABIM revenue from certification and Maintenance of Certification® since 1998 totals more than half a billion dollars. The yearly amount has nearly quintupled from 1999 to 2015.
Wes or anybody? Are you familiar with this (2700 vs. ABIM?) lawsuit. Is this a class action lawsuit. I believe if it is a class action lawsuit others should be informed and given an opportunity to participate in such a lawsuit against the ABIM for violating physicians' civil liberties and the many other offenses. Is there an attorney to contact?
Anony 12:35 PM
I am unaware of any "2700 vs ABIM" lawsuit at this time.
Wes
I'm in. Who are the attorneys?
This is an evil cabal and must be put out of the business of harming the good doctors who sacrifice so much to care for our people. It has no purpose whatsoever in these times other than to extort money from us only because we have the money. The time has come to collect real money from all doctors in the area of a hundred million dollars or more and imediately bring a class action lawsuit that will end their existence and personally go after each of their co conspirators especially this Rich Baron who I would not let into my house or ever allow to treat me. Money is the ONLY thing that talks and can move this beast and plague from our midst. One thousand dollars per doctor would raise over 500 million dollars, enough to inflict some real pain on the ABMS in court. Please someone take my donation and start this process.
Concerning the lawsuits of ABIM/Ballard Spahr against physicians
I've witnessed attorneys with strong prosecutorial skills who simply enjoyed harming people--especially innocent people.
Exercising one's ability or power to hurt someone is perverse and such people should not be in positions of authority or power. Yet they are.
Sometimes they even invent/introduce things and get creative with evidence in order to win. Would an organization like the ABIM, which invented MOC for reasons of greed and political power cheat its clients? Absolutely.
I'd like to sue these profiteers, too. Take my money as well. MONEY and POLITICAL ARROGANCE are all they understand. Take their money away and they will have bruised egos forever--powerless to hurt anyone.
A wee bit of conflict in the publishing and financial relationships past and present
McGraw Hill Education is now owned by Apollo Group formed by many Wall Street executives from a troubled firm that closed its doors because of indictments of securities fraud and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani's infamous threat of RICO charges, a federal stress test which the prosperous firm could not survive.
Apollo Group founders were in leadership positions at Drexel Burnham Lambert. The firm worked investing for one of its clients the ABIM. Subsequently with the immanent demise of Drexel, Burnham, Lambert, 1838 Investment Advisors was formed, issued stock and created mutual funds and was seamless successor to Drexel as manager for the ABIM's growing wealth, which strangely ended up routed to a secret bank account at the same address as the ABIM. No one knew for many years about the money route. It was a transfer of wealth from physician fees and trading profits into accounts that would much later be announced as the ABIM Foundation.
Let's look at the ABIM and its relationship with the world of test publishing/testing security and its ties to the lucrative relationship with the financial world. The facts are not really known because they have not been disclosed.
We can start with Robert Wachter who is under fire for his egregious conflicts of interest as an IPC director and chair of the Quality Committee. The DOJ is investigating his company's systematic practice of Medicare billing fraud.
In Texas, where IPC was solidly implanted there have been a flurry of wrongful death lawsuits against Wachter's Hospitalist Company. IPC merged with Team Health in December of 2015 hoping to bury the publicity surrounding the debt ridden IPC.
Robert Wachter's publisher is McGraw Hill, which has several relationships of interest with the ABIM where Wachter served as a board chairman for nearly a decade during on of the most controversial periods in its history. His recent book The Digital Doctor--Hope, Hype and Harm landed him a position advising the United Kingdom's Health Service on digital technology, particularly Electronic Health Records and their implementation.
McGraw Hill subsidized an enormous amount of money to promote this mediocre book of interviews into a New York Times bestseller. Also Wachter's latest wife is a staff writer with the New York Times who's connections with the media giant helped propel her husband into being one of the top-ranked medical authors.
Here are some links to explore for the maze of self-serving monetary madness which comprises the ABIM. Several current officers have direct ties to McGraw Hill and the global publishers of Uptodate.
http://abimfoundation.org/pressrelease/mcgraw-hill-education-and-the-abim-foundation-announce-the-publication-of-the-definitive-guide-to-teaching-and-practicing-professionalism-in-medicine
As of January 2016, Dr. Berns reported the following ongoing activities:
McGraw-Hill, receiving compensation for serving as a book editor.
UpToDate, receiving compensation for authorship and editorial services.
As of January 2016, Dr. Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, Chair reported the following ongoing activities:
UpToDate, receiving royalties as content author and peer reviewer.
As of January 2016, Ms. Jessup reported the following ongoing activities:
UpToDate, for editing chapters related to heart transplant.
As of January 2016, Dr. Paul Martin reported the following ongoing activities:
American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, receiving compensation for overseeing review of manuscripts.
UpToDate, receiving compensation for reviewing manuscripts.
As of January 2016, Dr. Richard M. Stone reported the following ongoing activities:
UpToDate, receiving compensation for authorship.
Sources to glance through for the conflicts of interest and to see for yourself how much lobbying power the ABMS has through multiple sources including those aleady mentioned. See next post.
http://www.boardvitals.com/internal-medicine-moc-recertification-prep#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGraw-Hill_Education
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Global_Management
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Black
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Ressler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Harris_(businessman)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rowan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Spilker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Wachter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABIM_Foundation
https://www.mheducation.com/news-media/press-releases/mcgraw-hill-education-remote-proctoring-solution-offers-secure-assessment-experience.html
http://www.prwatch.org/files/updated_03-30-15_pearson_ets_houghton_mifflin_and_mcgraw-hill_lobby_big_and_profit_bigger.pdf
http://hechingerreport.org/when-standardized-test-scores-soared-in-d-c-were-the-gains-real/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/education-department-finds-no-evidence-of-widespread-cheating-on-d-c-exams/
http://www.caveon.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2014-COTS-Conference-Program-Overview-Web.pdf
http://www.prwatch.org/files/updated_03-30-15_pearson_ets_houghton_mifflin_and_mcgraw-hill_lobby_big_and_profit_bigger.pdf
"ABIM recognizes the potential value of many types of relationships between health care experts and the healthcare-related industry. To help ensure the independence of all ABIM policies, programs and products, ABIM requires that those who serve on ABIM boards and committees provide detailed disclosures about their relationships with healthcare-related companies, including research, educational activities, intellectual property and service on healthcare-related company boards. Leadership roles with and grant funding or other compensation from other non-profit healthcare-related organizations are also disclosed. This information is shared among members of each board or committee, enabling open discussion about the nature of the work involved and any possible influence on the work of ABIM."
Very illuminating information regarding UpToDate and ABIM's intertwinement! This needs to be pursued further. The dirty are looking dirtier and dirtier.
A Rule of Corruption not a Rule of Justice
The dirty secret is that the "dirty people" just walk away form indictments more empowered, emboldened, and they continue to amass fortunes off the hard work and trust/ignorance of others.
"Others" lose homes, pensions, retirement accounts, health, jobs. But the "dirty people" cut deals. The "dirty people" with the dirty money are compromised by "dirty authorities." Or they compromise others, even the authorities to the far ends of the earth depending on how much wealth and power they have. The story goes they all just get rich. Richer and richer together.
Tell me it ain't so when you take off the colored glasses or put aside the true believer mentality and look with knowledge and understanding of the facts.
The ABMS, ABIM and entire umbrella of "quality assessors" are nothing more than pink collar mobsters aligned and modeled after the same fraudsters and racketeering schemes which we thought the DOJ put an end to years ago. In fact the fraudsters and racketeers are thriving more than ever.
They just walk(ed) away with billions and rebrand(ed) that "illicitly acquired wealth" on the heels of their parent companies' collapse. That is what Drexel did. That is what 1838 Investment Advisors did. Some of the prominent players of Drexel formed Apollo Global Management. They issued new stock and continued to enjoy the same sway as before. The stock for APO currently earns 8.10% in a near 0% financial environment. Not a bad way to park some of your newly minted fractional money.
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=apollo+management+stock
The ABMS is supposed to be free of influence and the smell of money, but they are not. They are more dirty than we could ever imagine. They are as dirty as Drexel and its successors. Historically the smell of their money is even tainted with blood money traced back all the way to insider trading involving war bonds during the American civil war where 620,000 American soldiers lost their lives.
The ABMS/ABIM is controlled by money. It is all about money and influence. Money in exchange for influence. If that is not clear enough let me put it this way. Quality assessment is imo a fraudulent scheme to amass personal wealth in exchange for influence pedaling of market makers and profiteers of the worst kind.
Now the ABMS/ABIM are sniffing their own fingers nervously, because someone from the "Land of Lincoln" and an honest not for profit accountant took the time to notice the profligacy and write about it on a blog and tweets--just how dirty and full of it these overcompensated "cronies of Apollo" are. The medical industrial complex and its "quality assessment thugs" who have continued their strong-arm techniques unabated for years have been busted.
Yes, they have all been indicted and arrested; not by the DOJ or IRS, but by a "moral authority" growing out of a strong grass roots movement--a movement to purge medicine of the ills stemming from a corrupt profiteering bureaucracy that harms physicians and patients.
Physicians and patients have said enough in a loud voice by banding together and saying no to MOC. It is a symbolic message that has an underlying message. We are tired of the corruption in the medical bureaucracies in both "private" and "government" sectors. We recognize how the lines between corporate graft and government collusion have created an unhealthy blurring of the lines. We no longer have a rule where justice prevails. We have degenerated and have accepted instead of the "rule of justice," it has been replaced with a "rule of corruption."
Utilizing the power granted to citizens, hard-working physicians have investigated these unethical ABMS executives and their monopolistic corporations and made a citizens arrest.
Well, here's another huge irony in this all this.....ABIM will let the physicians use UpToDate to assist them in the exam yet they won't accept CME earned through UpToDate (AMA PRA Category 1) to be used for MOC points. I have earned 100's of CME hours through UpToDate and they will not accept them. UpToDate tells me that the reason for this is that the UpToDate software is not compatible with ABIM's and ABIM won't accept the CME information unless it is able to be sent directly to their system. I can't mail; I can't email; and I can't fax my CME verification from UpToDate to ABIM. I pay $100's of dollars per year to have access to this site and earn CME. The ABIM tells me that I should just spend $1000's more to attend conferences to earn "acceptable" CME. I am an independent contractor and I have to pay for all my CME, licenses,etc plus I don't get vacation times so all this comes right out of my own pocket. Believe me, I am not making the lucrative salaries the bureaucrats at ABIM are. I re-certified this year through the National Board of Physicans and Surgeons and they took the UpToDate CME without a problem. Physicians en mass need to stop doing MOC and re-certify through NBPAS....There is safety in numbers! This letter from ABIM is so unbelievable to me!!
Physician employers requiring an ABMS certification often reimburse for certification and are now forced to dish out to ABMS boards the annual MOC fees. Outrageous. It is even quite typical for an employer to pay a bonus for each additional certification that one maintains. These exorbitant additional cost strains physician's and physician employers adding absolutely no value.
Think about what it would do/mean to any employer or large medical conglomerate like UHC, or a large hospital with specialty clinics what a savings it would be not to pay these extorted huge lumps of money and how not paying into the ABMS cartel would improve the bottom line. Eliminating useless costs could mean more cash flow for more important direct care related issues or management enhancement.
Time and money for a private contractor or self-employed physician is exponential when certification and MOC are added into the cost mix. Employed models were/are being forced upon physicians by changes imposed on the healthcare system by medical politicians like Christine Cassel, Richard Baron and Robert Wachter because it serves the corporate models they have been pushing and lobbying for on behalf of for decades at the ABIM.
The details and implications of this are outlined over and over here regarding conflicts of interest at the ABMS. This organization serves itself and not the public. It abuses and uses physicians.
Cut the ABMS monopolistic franchise off at every level--monetarily, socially and psychologically.
State licensure and CME should be sufficient. Any of the ABMS certification boards and recertification financial schemes have proved again and again to have been corrupted growing into a grossly negligent money-making industry and political machinery--nothing more.
Richard Baron is a smart man, and Lois Nora an intelligent woman, but they refuse to do what is necessary to restore the right balance to physicians lives. They are not the boss. Others are. Hands are tied even if ABMS administrators had an epiphany and some miracle occurred to erase the decades of corruption and abusive political power inflicted on their clients. The political and financial powers and enterprises that the ABMS serves overpower any moral germ left inside the executives and their respective boards. Supporting the NBPAS is a good interim solution until MOC is gone and certification--if deemed necessary--is put in the hands of residency and fellowship programs. It must be non-profit and volunteer activity involving qualified educators and university/community programs paid for out of educational stipends and completed before graduation.
End MOC and end the ABMS forever and never go back to this BS.
I'm tired of the ABIM monopolizing my time and money!
ABIM. The Mothers of Ill Intention and Deadly Invention
Re the alleged MOC and Uptodate CME software incompatibility.
To HR PuffnStuff:
The irony you mention regarding the ABIM not accepting Uptodate CME for MOC is just part of the shameful MOCk quality assurance racket. We have ABMS making lucrative deals behind closed doors with the "providers" of CME, which you must pay big $$$ to attend--plus all the travel, hotel and food accommodations.
And that "provider" could be a "SOCIETY," a "UNIVERSITY", a "ClINIC" or whatever in collusion with them. What society can you trust to not be in bed with the ABMS?
Now tack on the real irony, Dr Puffnstuff. When you attend these CME conferences the MOC sessions are totally separate and they cost you extra $$$ to attend--hundreds even. Plus irony upon irony you have to pay for an extra day of hotel, (car if you go for a budget hotel) and food expenses when you attend the "MOC session day"--just to get a few points of useless irrevalent MOC CME. They are stingy on the points and dear on the price.
Plus you miss an extra day of work or you use your CME days up fast and furious trying to get those stinking MOC points.
Now for the clincher of why a normal decent person should not choose to attend the MOC SESSION and pay extra $$$ and waste time. They wanted the MOC session attendees to use an I-phone app to keep track of you during your attendance.
Hell with them. I'm sick of this racketeering big brother/police state.
I hope Salas Rushford wins his $$$$$$$$15,000,000 judgment against these ABIM frauds!
250,000 physicians should "grow a spine" and shut these negligent ABIM "mothers of ill intention and deadly invention" down.
Anon 03:09 is right on the money above, especially in the last paragraph. As active participants in the Quality/Certification cartel, ABIM/ABMS can't just come out and say that they woke up one day and decided to admit they had been screwing physicians for years. It's easier for them to deny the obvious and continue the status quo. That is why definitive action to reform the current corruption will never come from within ABIM, it will have to be imposed on them from external forces outside the organization - a situation inconceivable to the elite professional medical politicians for over 50 years.
Despite the "Ostrich" strategy, the anxiety at Walnut St continues to escalate. No matter how much Xanax the ABIM inner circle consumes, this fear hangs over them like a cloud, just like Bernie Madoff waiting for his fraud to be uncovered and his reputation destroyed.
Where will the crack in the armor come from, Dr. Baron? Dismissal of ABIM's claim against Dr. Salas Rushford followed by a decision in favor of the counterclaim would be a great start, followed by a knock on the door with a subpoena and a crowd of attorneys, federal agents and marshals wrapping the Walnut St offices in yellow crime scene tape sounds fitting to me.
Ballad of the ABIM
The path to success--when you cheat and cut corners--can put you on the top of the hill; but that same cutting corners and cheating can just as easily put you in the ditch.
Rich Baron--CEO of the ABIM--is dazed from his negligent driving. He has helped cause a serious accident. He is sitting in his executive seat stunned with mouth agape looking at a broken gutted cart--flat on its back, lying belly up in the ditch.
The wheels of this corrupt institution known as the ABMS are still spinning from the continued sleights of hand. But soon all the wheels will stop. It is a broken useless machine that got ahead of itself using illicit means. The fall was from a very high place and the sound of the crash was great. There are no physicians left who do not know how corrupt and profligate the ABMS is. There is no one left to support it. Afterall nobody wants to keep the dirty wheels turning on a broken useless cart.
No one!
So true.. The case of Dr. Salas demonstrates how ABIM singles out persecutes and uses its power and money. We need to contribute to Dr. Salas battle.Complaining with no action to make a change is a toxic habit. I will send my contribution because each dollar will send a message to ABIM... We are alive and well and will be heard! Please pledge so we can be counted!
Dr Salas Rushford deserves our money and support! Complaining without doing is counterproductive. A dollar spent on justice is a thousand dollars saved.
http://www.doctorsjustice.com/#!ABIMs-trepidation-revelation/op0s3/56fdc43d0cf2d8d402fd4fd0
I have donated twice now. Every time he makes progress I smile, rub my hands together with great satisfaction and then send more money!
Regarding ABIM v. Salas Rushford v. ABIM. I have given to Dr. Salas Rushford, the Haiti earthquake first responder 5 times. Already The deposition of Dr. Arora is priceless for the insights it revealed. We are anxious to hear from others on Dr. Salas Rushford's "deposition list." We want to know who the "employee" was spying on physicians in 2009 at the Arora Board Review course in New York. The employee prepared evidence for the ABIM's "ongoing investigation" of the ABR in order to get a seizure order from a PA judge to rob physicians of the fourth amendment rights. How credible was the evidence when we don't know how credible the "employee" was. We certainly know how credible the ABIM is and their stonewalling attorneys. I can't believe how ruthless Hara Jacobs is to intimidate Dr. Arora like that. And physicians paid her $650 per hour to sit in front of him and keep him from saying too much. And how flippant is that sooty retired judge--now Ballard Spahr's verbose armament factory. How belittling can an attorney be and still get away it--with his ersatz legal mumbo jumbo in response to requests for discovery.
ABIM started this sick game of charades. They can at least respond seriously. Remember it was the ABIM that crushed physicians without due process over merger and twiddled their thumbs on the content and relevancy of their tests.
That sorry bastard Baron was involved to the hilt with the persecution of Frontrunners, ABR, and wanted badly with foam in his mouth to get to be CEO--for his part he played! And he won't even address anything real--ever. Next 'town hall' some physicians should ask the real questions that we want to know.
What a son of a b.... Baron is. The board and chairman stamped the Inquisition with their seal of approval. Everybody got 'Langdoned.' They burned the saint at the stake, but it should have been Langdon and Cassel. Where is that witch Lynn and how much money is the ABIM Foundation paying her to "shut up and sit tight."
The democratic political process got Langdoned and Casseled by partisan medical bureaucrats and lobbyist pulling their evil shenanigans on the physicians hard earned dime.
I have one big question. Ballard Spahr's New Jersey lead attorney is a principled man from what I have read of his record. How can Scooter-Rivera suddenly turn into a prostitute working for Christine Cassel, Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Obamacare fanatics who cheated and lied to the public. They stole physicians' testing fees, bought a funhouse for lobbying and busting their butts in Washington to ruin the healthcare system.
...and reduce as many seniors, minorities and veteran's health benefits as possible with their so-called "professionalism." But maybe the sickest thing of all--the Christine Cassel et al studies of "death in America" funded by George "Mein Krank Kopf" Soros. This partly gave the private means and inspiration for the brightest Jewell in the ABMS crown--the ABIM Austerity Foundation. Everybody's working for the George Soros Choose Wisely Global Insurance Plan. You think this is bizarre and macabre? So do I! Neoconservatives like Soros and Cassel advise governments on war and health and influence markets for profit and politics. Soros has been so effective they put him in charge of some of the soft-power global propaganda campaigns. How conflicted and twisted can our corrupt officials get to allow Soros to profit and play government sponsored NGO's like they were his personal financial fiddle?
Georgie Porgy Soros and the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Soros and the BBG, IBB, etc, and the media "softpower" propaganda empire--boon or bane for Americans.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2012/04/25/george-soross-and-the-neo-cons-control-of-washingtons-propaganda-program.html
I'd like to name RICO to be head of the ABMS dissolution committee.
And Puerto Rico to be the place of celebration when the Chicago offices are closed by the DOJ and draped with yellow crime scene tape. Let the ABMS insiders be the insiders at Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, Ct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Correctional_Institution,_Danbury
Only one catch: the ABMS gangsters would come out of prison with a lot more money than when they came in with. No sweat being in prison they say. We will hold cell block seminars teaching fellow inmates the ABMS method of insider trading, how to obfuscate on financials--particularly when you think nobody's looking--and individual cheat sessions on corporate taxes. And they'd write a book published by McGraw Hill, edited by Robert M Wachter, formerly with the US government, entitled How to Turn a Profit Anywhere--for wardens and correctional institution staff.
Chris Cassel will be in charge of the Martha Stuart quilting society, knitting class and laundry detail. New volumes will be Gerontology for Erring Physicians. New societies founded: Prisoners for Social Responsibility. Cellmates: Lynn Langdon.
What's the real story on N Hines and L Slas? Was their involvement in this the reason they're gone?
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