There's a wonderful social media principle that might just stop Maintenance of Certification: the Streisand Effect.
The Streisand Effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet. And when the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) resorts to thuggery and strongman tactics against a physician, this might just come back to bite them in the private parts.
Imagine, you are a physician and your regulatory agency strips you of your privileges to practice medicine without due process. Then imagine the same regulatory agency refuses to release information pertitent to your defense for months and months.
Then imagine, that same self-appointed regulatory agency decides to subpoena you for additional information for their case against you on the busiest travel weekend of the year with only 17 days notice (usual and customary time is 30 days notice). Then, after your attorney politely tries to plea for an adjustment of dates, that same regulatory agency that seems unable to provide information to you, basically says to your attorney: "Your client may choose to disregard it - and the sanctions such disregard will bring - at his own peril."
Welcome to the legal tactics of the ABIM that is feeling the heat of Dr. Salas Rushford's discovery requests and their upcoming meeting with the judge in the case on 3 June 2016.
In 2015, Dr. Salas Rushford had a gross income $69,725 and a net loss of $1875 in 2015. Compare this amount to the $10.88 million Christine Cassel, MD earned from the ABIM and her cronies during her stint as President and CEO at ABIM from 2003-2013. According to their recently-released tax forms for fiscal year 2015, the ABIM recieved revenues of over $57,620,000 in its fiscal year ending Jun 30, 2015 and Richard Baron, MD (the current President and CEO) pocketed a cool $812,000.
One thing I know. The Internet doesn't like bullies that are trying to hide something from the public (just ask Barbara Streisand).
To me, this young man who has been accused of wrongdoing by the ABIM deserves a fair shake. Imagine what would happen if every US physician, internist, or medical student donated $1, $5 or $10 (or more) to his efforts - it would be a game-changer for the ABIM and for working physicians.
Consider donating to Dr. Salas Rushford's defense and countersuit of the ABIM here.
After all: bullies suck.
-Wes
P.S.: Consider sharing this post with friends.
27 comments:
Just donated again! Let's all help him out - he is starting some cracks that will eventually let all manner of things burst forth!
Wes, I donate regularly to Dr Salas-Rushford's physicians for justice and pursuit of constitutional rights. It is important to all. What lurks beneath the surface of the ABIM - within the soulless gut of this massive powerful testing security beast - the public ought to know. It is vile and foul.
I find this case fascinating and very disturbing at the same time. I cannot believe how, with so many 'ethical' professional medical bureaucrats sitting on their lodges throughout the entire ABMS, not one independent thinking executive, board member, officer, or staff member investigates this objectively or calls for an accounting of their actions - digging for real facts. Or at least one moral man or woman that would come forward and speak up against it.
Our politicians, as part of our democracy, are exercising their free speech and vote all the time. Why do we have a situation where not one of these hundreds of moral people step forward or up to the plate crying foul. Or at least one small dissenting voice suggesting publicly that the ABIM or ABMS should examine what they are doing by prosecuting a time-barred case without legal merit. With exculpatory evidence or any evidence for that matter being withheld by the plaintiff - ABIM.
Why we want discovery to proceed as clients of the ABIM.
The evidence and documents presented here (on this blog) and in court docs (sealed or not) speak volumes about the conflicts of interest and extensive corruption that persists within the ABIM and ABMS. Look at what the ABIM's legal arm Ballard Spahr(and perhaps ABR's own attorney) did to Dr. Arora - and what they stole from him. They stole something far more valuable than money! Think about it. What they did to him they did to all of us and it was and is atrocious! Even the entire ABMS has been gagged from exercising their thought and free speech as you can see.
Even Dr. Arora's important settlement document the ABIM is withheld from discovery. It is amazing that the ABIM publicly released a statement that they reached an agreement with Arora Board Review - an approved and accredited course - and published what the content of the agreement was. Yet, the ABIM now withholds this from Salas-Rushford in discovery requests for his own defense. Why? Will it expose yet another lie or series of lies that the ABIM (and ABMS) wants to keep hidden from the public?
I suspect, from the principle of the Streisand effect, that this is the case here as well. By withholding our suspicions are aroused to the extreme. It would imply there is something dramatic in the ABIM/ABR settlement that will bite ABIM and Ballard Spahr in the proverbial 'groin'.
We all want to know what it is! What deceptions were thrust upon us starting in 2009 with the power over the court and media that Christine Cassel, Eric Holmboe, Lorie Slass, and Richard Baron had. Of the four executives just listed, now only Richard Baron remains at the organization. Does Dr. Baron have an independent mind without legal gag in his mouth able to exercise his constitutional rights?
I would hope someone at the ABIM or ABMS is an American first and stands up for our inalienable rights - someone not unduly conditioned who is able to speak the whole truth without fear of censure or legal recourse.
Why Memorial Day Weekend? Is ABIM that cruel?
Memorial Day weekend is a protected family time. To expect a deposition involving travel at that time is cruel and unusual - even sadistic. How can Ballard-Spahr on behalf of Hara Jacobs (BS) and Richard Baron (ABIM) be so utterly thoughtless? I can't believe Mr. Rivera-Soto thought up this dirty trick. But yet he signed it. How could he do that or be party to this. I just refuse to believe it. Is he trying to be thrown off the case? He may not like who he is representing. That is always possible.
It is, however, disturbing that a former NJ Supreme Court Judge, now working for Ballard Spahr as ABIM's local attorney, is insensitive to the extreme difficulty involved in traveling from Puerto Rico. Or was the letter written by the lead attorney in Philadelphia? That would make more sense. Irrespective of who drafted and refined the letter the words are harsh and dogmatic. Everyone knows, it is especially difficult on Memorial Day weekend, arranging flights at higher costs, ground transport from the airport to a distant city, meeting with lawyers, arranging lodging, and personal needs to be prepared, get fed and rested for the most important deposition of one's personal and professional life.
It is even getting more difficult to fly with all the delays due to terrorism threats and other random shootings/increased violence as well. Flights are delayed - not enough TSA help. The ABIM' COO's office should understand that with their security experts. Don't people communicate with each other. Is there no more consideration for another anymore? There should not even be a lawsuit. This case died when Dr. Arora settled in June of 2010. That ended it. Look at the court documents. Read them and study what this is really about. And why it persists. For whose benefit?
Why does the ABIM not reciprocate and produce their documents and depositions as required? Looking at the documents on pacer.gov, or the selected ones on Jimmy R's site, ABIM has been stalling and stonewalling. And what does it mean to reject a legitimate request for an accommodation of change of date and time using such language as ABIM chose - the harshest of words. "Your client may choose to disregard it - and the sanctions such disregard will bring - at his own peril."
ABIM's attorneys wrote such nasty language with that horrible physician/attorney trigger word "sanctions." I have never seen a more extreme exhibition of cruelty - meting out pain on an individual with a caring and supportive family. If I were the magistrate I would sanction Ballard Spahr for such a knife point entry of words and rejection of a simple request twisting the blade into an already salty wound. What a nightmare to be persecuted and pursued for years by the ABIM and one of the most powerful, and politically connected law firms in the US. (and Puerto Rico)
Why can't Ballard Spahr use their San Juan attorney offices for the deposition of Dr. Salas Rushford? It would be more fair and cost effective to do that. They could send a list of questions using a local attorney for a local and convenient deposition. Ballard Spahr says repeatedly that it is such a straightforward case it should be no problem, particularly because it is as Soto-Rivera characterizes it, himself. Also in this high-tech age they could arrange for an in-office live video deposition using any number of web-based tele-conferencing tools. Teleconferencing is used all the time in business, medicine and law. Why is ABIM trying to bury this young physician with exorbitant costs and dragging out the process of discovery. I would request to be compensated for the time, cost and additional legal fees incurred from the travel, etc.
But most important of all Memorial day is a protected holiday for most of us and it is a time for family to remember loved ones and our service men and women who have sacrificed their lives. How callous toward Dr. Salas Rushford's family and how utterly unpatriotic and disrespectful!
Ugly Examples of Experimentation In ABIM Professionalism
Isn't it an ethics violation for a reputable legal firm like Ballard Spahr - the firm of former governor Ed Rendell - or any regulatory agency like the ABIM to use stonewalling, psychological warfare, and financial terrorism against a good-faith defendant in such total disregard for his person. This is especially despicable to do to a person in such a vulnerable position psychologically, emotionally and financially? A person who has already been exploited enough for ABIM's personal, financial and political gain. Enough is enough. They have not only crossed the line of decency, but they have violated all of us inside by witnessing how the ABIM and Ballard Spahr operate and work on their subjects. I want it to stop now.
The ABIM's Lynn Langdon and her "Panel" already waged their psychological cold war against this person and released their plagues against him in ABIM's Kangaroo Court. Now this extended gauntlet of misery and deceitful practice smacking him down every week that he and his team play fairly to defend and eventually win their counterclaim case against the ABIM! I have studied what brought this case on and it was over long ago and this present sham case should have never have been brought to bear in a court of law.
What has the ABIM done in harming yet another person? They have created an army of haters, dissenters and critics who are dying to bring down this house of cards.
What does it look like from the outside looking in at the ABIM and their legal team?
We get a glimpse into indecent legal behavior that should have been stopped years ago. I say the ABIM should have their rights taken away to operate in our society.
They do not belong in a society of moral human beings. The world needs to be protected. The only way to do that is to break this powerful secretive organization up into a thousand pieces.
If anyone has not notice or bothered to look seriously the ABIM has been engaged in experimentation on Dr. Salas Rushford like he were their psychological subject probing, looking for his financial and emotional breaking point. Last time I looked no one involved in this case against Dr. Salas Rushford had a license in any US state to practice black magic psychology, let alone wage psychological warfare against a person.
If I were the judge involved in this case I would slap ABIM and Ballard Spahr down immediately. This is not how you conduct a civil case in any court of law that I have seen or heard about in the United States of America. We have protections in place - safeguards from such sadistic acts against persons. And there are also sanctions against those who violate human decency and there are legal remedies for those who are harmed in such experimental tactics of mind and attempts at complete emotional control.
I ask the public to look at the ABIM and their attorneys with me and help me define this kind of un-called for action as the ABIM has exhibited toward their defendant - a vulnerable person. Made so by the ABIM. He did not ask for this psych-ops exercise and campaign against him or attempts by the ABIM in bending legal rules. He did not anticipate Philadelphia-style power play after the Kangaroo Court was concluded. What for I ask? Why would ABIM pursue and persecute him in a time-barred case except for pure vindictive violation of his person.
How many others have there been? Hundreds, thousands? How many more to come?
I say no to this horror and this horrible ABIM sponsored project against physicians and the public. No to all of it.
Belmont Report
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/belmont-report/#
1. Respect for Persons. -- Respect for persons incorporates at least two ethical convictions: first, that individuals should be treated as autonomous agents, and second, that persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection. The principle of respect for persons thus divides into two separate moral requirements: the requirement to acknowledge autonomy and the requirement to protect those with diminished autonomy.
Professionalism and the Physician Charter ABIM Foundation
http://abimfoundation.org/what-we-do/medical-professionalism-and-the-physician-charter/physician-charter
Commitment to maintaining trust by managing conflicts of interest.
Medical professionals and their organizations have many opportunities to compromise their professional responsibilities by pursuing private gain or personal advantage. Such compromises are especially threatening in the pursuit of personal or organizational interactions with for-profit industries, including medical equipment manufacturers, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical firms. Physicians have an obligation to recognize, disclose to the general public, and deal with conflicts of interest that arise in the course of their professional duties and activities. Relationships between industry and opinion leaders should be disclosed, especially when the latter determine the criteria for conducting and reporting clinical trials, writing editorials or therapeutic guidelines, or serving as editors of scientific journals.
I have never in my life seen a more dangerous, ruthless and corrupt organization than the ABIM. How and why this unwholesome organization still exists is a complete mystery to me.
ABIM is 'BIG BROTHER' on steroids. ABMS holds the 'UMBRELLA OF PROTECTION'.
"Memorial Day weekend is a protected family time. To expect a deposition involving travel at that time is cruel and unusual - even sadistic."
Sounds like a Lynn Langdon move.
Hey Lynn... Youre not forgotten.
Its only a matter of time when youll face some justice.
i just donated 25 dollars. anyone who reds dr wes blog needs to donate! we have already made the ABIM abandone the 10 year secure exam, lets keep going!!
The ABIM's Dr. Richard Baron and Ballard Spahr's Hara Jacobs could stop this whole thing at any time. But we are beginning to see what these people at the ABMS boards are made of. What makes them run and tick. Isn't it a passion for money, power and administering a twist of lime on the wounds they create?
This is not a civil pursuit, this is a damn political scourge and public flagellation with the first pronouncements, judgments and tortures held behind closed doors. This 10-year war against physicians has been a 21st century inquisition initiated by the spies and high priests of the ABIM.
With recent revelations about conflicts of interest - flowing like milk and honey at the ABMS and ACGME - it is much clearer now who has been behind this unsavory business and why.
More gold and power for the high priests and ditto for the money-changers controlling the whole game of monopoly.
Next roll of the dice might produce the card that winds them up in jail.
More dirty tricks from "Tricky Dick" Baron.
FYI he's been managing ABIM's prosecutorial teams persecuting physicians for years - as far back as I can remember. That's partly why they made this former CMS/NQF MILLION DOLLAR MAN the President/CEO. Rich, like Eric Holmboe, was willing to do the cruel, dirty and unusual things for Dr. Cassel and her corporate cronies channeling money and political power throughout the vast network of "quality assurance" NGOs.
"Tricky Dick" Baron - the well-managed politician willing to do almost anything for money.
The Devil is in the Altered Details (of the ABIM's original mission)
Lynn Langdon, Senior VP, Advisor and COO and acting as head of the testing security has had continuous employment at the ABIM like no other person in the history of the organization 1972 to 2016. That's 44 years. She has extracted millions in compensation and retirement from this non-profit organization that was set to dissolve in 1986 or soon according to the original Articles of Incorporation.
These Articles were altered in 1965 to allow for an independent executive position and in 1975 were altered further in order for this lucrative and politically active testing business to go on indefinitely - in perpetuity the Articles now read. It was no longer a time-limited mission of "50 years or less" as envisioned by the nine founding members. The founding father Dr. Bierring died in 1961 in Iowa.
Who altered the ABIM’s explicit time-limited mission and why this was done is a question physicians need to ask.
Henry Strozeski, ABIM CFO was employed right out of the Wharton School of Business in 1974 and retired from ABIM after 30 years in 2004. Henry Strozeski is sole signatory to the document which registered the ABIM Foundation in 1989 linked with Iowa.
When Strozeski retired, this is when Christine Cassel began her tenure with the organization as CEO/President, but she worked with the CFO from her work as President of the ABIM Foundation in 1999. Cassel was at the ABIM from 2003 through 2014 as head of the ABIM and ABIM Foundation, but was active on the board and with the organization since early in her political career. Cassel was the sole signatory when the ABIM Foundation was registered in PA in 1999.
Harry Kimball was CEO of the ABIM from 1991 until 2003.
John Benson became the first president of the ABIM in 1975 until he retired from the business in 1991.
All the above individuals have walked away from the business banking away a great deal of money. I would be interested to see an estimate of how many millions these individuals have drawn out of the ABIM and ABIM Foundation accounts after the ABIM was diverted from the original non-profit mission of 50 years or less established in 1936.
This radical surgery to the articles, which occurred in 1975, corresponding with the first president and canceling the date of administrative dissolution to read in-perpetuity is puzzling. How could non-clinicians and business employees feel that they had the right and power to change the ABIM's Articles of Incorporation? I consider this outrageously bold and audacious.
Who or what did the ABIM primarily serve at that point when the Articles of Incorporation were altered or manipulated to perhaps no longer focus on physicians and the public, but on themselves and special interests. Does anyone really believe the ABIM's current "mission statements?"
Lynn Langdon presided as a key person at the organization and participated in the ABIM's transition from time-limited to an "in-perpetuity" corporate enterprise with a vast surplus of funds generated. What was done with those funds and why?
Why was there such a vast surplus with millions of those dollars transferred to a secret Foundation? I believe we are entitled to the answers to these and other basic questions. However much of it is obvious by now.
The Devil is in the Altered Details. (Who shredded the ABIM's Articles and Mission?)
Who gave this secret society with its dynastic clan of democrats, the right to change the course of history without discussion. There was not voice and vision shared with physicians and the public was not allowed to vote on it.
"Of the profession, for the public." Was this the original pledge (and motto) which the ABIM political elite changed for their own personal profit and power over physicians. Is it not now reflective of a motto "Of the elite, for the elite."
The ABIM executives and officers appear to only serve themselves and their cronies as a result of the changes made to the original time-limited articles - with its checks and balances and its honorable original mission.
That mission and pledge to the public was fulfilled years ago and the organization should have been dissolved administratively long ago, accordingly as intended.
It outrages and saddens us all to see the sickening results stemming from these additional years under the rule of administrative corruption. It is politically corrupt and partisan and it is a self-serving highly profitable corporation violating all ethics it professes.
The continuous lawsuits have not just been an embarrassment for the ABIM, but the highly counterproductive results serve as a perfect example of an organization which has lost its focus, relevancy and moral compass.
With all the MILLIONS of $$$$$$$$$ which Hara Jacobs of Ballard Spahr has pulled out of the ABIM coffers, I think this unscrupulous woman should suspend her $700 per hour fee and work pro-bono for the ABIM. After all it is physicians' fees paying the legal bills to persecute physician after physician. Docs get punished just for believing in the relevancy of this corporate tax-dodging enterprise with its fingers all over the private places of Washington DC.
But foremost docs play with ABMS member boards, because those docs will lose their jobs if they don't pay and play.
Read what Meg Ryan at REBEL MD has to say about her experience of voluntarily choosing not to participate in voluntary MOC!
This courageous soul is working hard to restore what non-clinicians and business people took away from physicians and their patients for personal profit and political control of physicians. It is a big industry with a lot of special interests. A lot of conspiracy and collusion to go along with it. Michigan has been working on legislation for restoring patients' rights to medical care.
http://rebel.md/what-happens-when-you-stop-doing-moc/
If MOC is not one of the most corrupt condemnable situations you have ever seen, then just peel back a few more layers of the onion and you will see how endless the trail of tears becomes when you exercise your will. We need a legislative bill.
Oklahoma passes a complete anti-MOC, anti medical racketeering bill.
Oklahoma was the place that gave meaning to the word "stakeholder" with its vast tracts of land and a taste of freedom.
Now Oklahoma is setting the example again on how to respond to the ABIM's undisclosed lobbying and continuous monkeying around.
Oklahoma responded to the ABIM's shenanigans resounding back unanimously voting for an anti-MOC legislation. Make that legislation happen in all 50 states and territories. Certification and MOC cannot be tied to licensure, reimbursement, or employment in any way by any party in the US.
An informal polling of physicians indicated that the ABMS was an aggressor that sought to establish control over all the states.
http://www.abms.org/about-abms/leadership-team/thomas-granatir/
Further polling indicated the ABMS sought maintenance of control of states through various forms of expensive propaganda paid for by physicians.
http://www.abms.org/media/1347/irons-cmss_abms-summit-oct_14.pdf
Questions, questions, and more questions about this dark secretive society of medical bureaucrats!
Wes, do you or others think the ABIM will comply with discovery and supply Dr. Salas-Rushford with a copy of the settlement in ABIM v. ABR? (Dr. Arora 2009) And the other documents on the shopping list for Jimmy R's defense are important to us and to get at the real incriminating evidence on the ABIM - if Langdon is not busy shredding it. They say she "no longer works there," but it is more likely she retired getting money by working now - "as a contractor." There are probably so many files and documents over the decades she's been there that no one knows about or where to find them. So many routinely shredded or deleted. This is a race for the ABIM. That is why they stonewall also. If the DOJ came in by surprise to seize their computers they would be screwed.
Did you know they were suing ABR for $1,000,000 and used the ABMS patented techniques of thuggery and strong-arming on him. They threatened to take away his house and put him on the street. They acted like a gestapo.
Furthermore, I understand that ABIM announced they settled in June of 2010 with ABR and implied they got their truckload of money. Did they? It should have been over then. Why then were they allowed to take others to court. Most did not have to. Sarah von Muller wanted to fight them for the harm they did her. She was a fighter. ABIM paid out millions on just Sarah in trying to hurt her and then in defending their actions.
They wanted a mountain of money and got a mole hill from the judge in ABIM v von Muller v ABIM, Cassel et al. The judge may have been pissed at the ABIM by then, I suspect, not just for 'getting him out of bed' but for lying to him about how BIG ABR was and the level of threat. They tried to say it was like Kaplan (a big test prep co.) stealing their precious NIH funded science. ABR was one lone man! The herd of tigers chasing and suing a mouse. What a farce. I tell you I would be pissed off if I were a judge. Now they want a to pursue a decent physician again!
Why should ABIM keep getting money from people when the case was over in 2010. Big money doled out they said. One million dollars goes a long way for their "two-bit" medical questions. Did Arora have that kind of money? Did the ABIM misrepresent the ABR to the judge. Of course they did and they should pay Arora back and apologize.
Questions about the ABIM...
I want to know what's been going on. I want the truth, and I want to see that ABIM v ABR settlement. This affected so many people. It affects how much future harm the ABMS can do. They must be stopped from lying, harming folks, and inventing science. If they invented all that propaganda, which is so disgustingly maddening to hear all the time, they certainly could have and did invent all that fluff for the judge in Philadelphia in ABIM v ABR. I see ABIM doing it again in New Jersey. You'd think that attorney in Cherry Hill for Ballard Spahr would see through this fiasco for what it is and talk to the previous judge about it all to get his impressions.
What is going on really? Is Arora still in debt to the ABIM making payments for "30 years" and under lifetime gag order to never be able to speak about it or tell the truth to the public? Only under court order will we get at the truth from the ABIM They are merciless and cheaters without honor. He has more honor in his little finger than the entire ABMS. That is how pathetic to me the ABIM is.
I have followed this from Kurt Eichenwald's stories. I also want to know about 1838 investors and the relationship that ABIM had with them. Did he respond to that? A lot of money was transferred between 1989 and 2007 - enough to move a mountain. And money we probably will never know about, I suspect. All the Wall Street insider trades and appetite for risk. For what? They were not entitled to gamble with a non-profit's money. How can we trust them?
And now six years later they want more flesh and skulls on their Walnut Street mantle. The court says three years is the limit on prosecuting anyone. Are they really so vicious?
See the 2010 ABIM settlement announcement below. Hara Jacob took a victory lap. What's in the settlement for Dr. Baron to want it buried forever. What's really in it that makes ABIM withhold it from the public, as they already announced everything, if we can believe the ABIM. But more importantly why don't they (ABIM) want to share it with the defendant in their time-barred copyright infringement case. Dr. Salas Rushford needs it and it is relevant to every phycians in order to be able to get at the facts of just who and what this certification company really is.
After all, they sued and sanctioned hundreds, and reprimanded thousands (Harming so many and keeping a permanent ABIM file on them - sanction letter.)
https://www.abim.org/news/abim-reaches-settlement-with-arora-board-review.aspx
MOC is an onerous money grab. Physicians' hard earned money down the drain.
In Testimony given in front of Michigan's Health Policy Committee to break up the ABMS certification monopoly - and to make certification truly voluntary again - who are we to believe?
Those professional insurance or hospital organization "expert insiders" sitting next to the ABMS lobbyists offering their well-scripted testimony for a fee?
Or would we be inclined to trust real physicians who understand that MOC is a scam? I'm talking about those intelligent brave souls who sang their truth to the committee for free.
Truth is Stranger than Fiction.
Was Dr. Arora strong-armed by ABIM to settle his lawsuit quickly - even being offered a 'bribe' to do so?
ABIM had a very weak case and even manufactured some of the evidence. They apparently employed an unvetted "American-Israeli felon" and a "Florida con man" - with no experience in test security at the time - to lead the "ongoing investigation." The "American-Israeli felon" was a surveillance expert with background as a terrorist-plot director/script writer and crisis actor. He was a goon bar bouncer for a while and ex-cop before that - busted and thrown off the force. He was a troubled thug, later arrested for illegal possession of a firearm and impersonation of a police officer. He beat a bar client into the ground with unbridled ruthless force.
He covered most of his "shit" up on his CV to hide it from clients and employers. But the ABIM hired him, most likely, because he was compromised and could be used to do what they wanted easily.
The "Florida con man" had insider connections with how a county DA's office operated and how to work the system. They were ambitious and knew how to manipulate the test security industry and created a lucrative niche for themselves, because the ABIM and ABMS needed their developing skills and the network of secretive test spy companies they paired up with.
How did the ABIM's Christine Cassel and Ballard Spahr get a federal judge to sell out Dr. Arora's civil liberties and jeopardize his livelihood - requiring Hara Jacobs, in behalf of ABIM and Lynn Langdon, to put up only a $10,000 bond? If you have not read the court papers, they seized Dr. Arora's property and the marshal's/judge granted sole custody of a van full of boxes and technology loaded with data on physicians to Hara Jacobs, Lynn Langdon and her thugs. Your information! The ABIM did not really want just him. The ABIM wanted Arora's ABR attendees to persecute. And they needed lots of them. In their fishing expedition with Dr. Arora they netted thousands. All from manufactured evidence and phony testing experts who were faking it for physicians and the public learning on the job. The ABIM is guilty of public fraud. The ABMS shared these ABIM test security investigators with other member boards.
So how did they get it all accomplished? They cheated, that's how they managed to do it! That's why they desperately needed to get Dr. Arora to settle quickly before any facts about their corrupt "ongoing investigation" or the people involved could be ascertained. And the "bribing" of their defendant, Arora. Even Arora's attorney would not release their copy of the settlement. There were reasons for it, or they would have released it.
It's quite possible that a powerful smart attorney could have turned it all around for Dr. Arora and he would have "owned the ABMS" - if not for the severe threats and intimidation from the ABIM and the ex-parte writ to seize his property. He feared for his life, and family.
The ABIM has dark secrets and this is one of the big ones. They cannot be trusted. Their evidence cannot be trusted. Their history of professionalism and ethics is all bullshit. Their certification tests and MOC a big sham. There is no scientific evidence that validates the ABMS claims. It is almost all fraud. It is public fraud of the worst kind, imo.
The ABIM, ABMS, Dr. Baron, Christine Cassel, Lynn Langdon et al, have a lot of explaining to do in court. Let's see how long they can keep up the stone wall. It is now eighty years old - that proprietary wall of "reputation" and "secrecy" they hide behind.
There is substance behind this story that needs investigating.
ABIM reveals its ugly face through its dirty tricks.
Is the ABIM immune from prosecution for any of its wrongdoing?
I'm deeply interested in taking a look at history and how things work in governance/maintenance/expansion of the ABIM. How can a voluntary certification company, registered in Iowa, without any business office in Des Moines, only a registered agent, suddenly pack up its "business" and move to Philadelphia and register as a foreign agent in the state of Pennsylvania. I am interested in the reasons for this and how they suddenly became such an all powerful organization that tries to hold clinical physicians accountable for almost everything, yet they are not accountable to anyone, except their crooked corporate buddies pulling the strings.
I've discovered some ABIM board officers have even lobbied for attorneys fighting to block tort reform -- arguing there should be no cap on court judgments and settlements. (I'm not offering an opinion, just saying what is.)
But I'm more interested to see how the same 1990's lobbyist along with the executives and board came up with MOC.
I'd like them disclose the minutes. And provide the documents that prove or disprove MOC has value other than the ABMS assertion that it does. We heard from other ABIM lobbyists in the past who sided with BIG Tobacco, being paid out of a slush fund by the industry for ABIM's valued/certified opinion. How many deaths resulted from that unscientific slush fund lobbying. Look at the material the ABIM Chairman in 1969 presented. NONE WHATSOEVER other than his ABMS ABIM society membership/impressive CV -- and oh two books by a single outdated author.
How about a study on the real outcomes of being stressed by the mandates of MOC and the ABIM propaganda machine?
How about a study on the real outcomes from Choosing Wisely campaign soon to be an UpToDate "wise imperative" or "wise choice" legislated by Washington or a ACGME mandate. Maybe an insurance co.'s insistence "soft-wired" into the EHR on what is equitable and cost effective.
How many dollars have been saved versus dollars (and lives) lost. We don't have any studies other than ones that said "whoops, we just killed some heart patients who needed the whole (evidence-based) treatment, not the flimsy money-influenced unproven "Choosing Wisely" recommendation.
Just like tobacco companies had the damning data, but kept the truth from its consumers about the studies they buried away; can we file for freedom of information and get the ABMS studies on MOC. The negative studies may have been censored or shredded -- scientists voices locked up in the file drawer or some professional medical bureaucrat's private server.
Question: Is Richard Baron no different than a "Tricky Dick" type who would clandestinely order or approve of outrageous "harm" done to his ABIM candidates and diplomates -- fellow certified physicians. When ABIM/ABMS destroyed Arora Board Review and other competing board review courses beginning in 2008/2009 and the hundreds/thousands of board certified or eligible physicians, what was Baron's role? What role did Dr. Baron have with his cronies Christine Cassel, Lynn Langdon and their arsenal of secret police and attorneys in carrying out these attacks and persecutions?
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/16/40_years_after_attica_rebellion_new
JOHN EHRLICHMAN: A deterrent. Well, the concern that Rockefeller had was that Seale and some of the Black Panthers who had been up there came out and said to the press, "If any harm comes to any of these prisoners, why, we’re going to blow up other prisons around the country."
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: Yeah.
JOHN EHRLICHMAN: So I passed that along to the attorney general, who in turn alerted his assistant.
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: Right, they won’t—I don’t think they will. I may be wrong, but I think Rockefeller had to do what he did.
What did Nixon know -- when and how? that there would be no Panther reprisals. Nixon, through the FBI, had high level informants on the inside -- even ones with military background to supply the guns.
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/03/161408561/did-man-who-armed-black-panthers-lead-two-lives
I hate to say it but Rich Baron has the same mad-driven look in his eyes, the same wild jaw, that same gangster-like 6 o'clock shadow. At least that other "crook" gave us "China" and let us "try out" HMO's. What did Baron ever give us except propaganda, lies and grief? And one hell of a big debt to pay him every year -- 800,000 -- plus what they are not telling us about. We always find with the ABIM there is always something hidden -- maybe a golden parachute held in trust somewhere outside the country.
1. Baron video. Where is the evidence? Did he really say there is "no robust evidence" about MOC.
Non-thinking individual/likes the money/wants to help us self-regulate not let the government take over certification.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dXreLV5fGQ
2. MOC SHOULD BE STOPPED! Anti-moc advocate (video below 2013) said he "heard on the low" that Dr. Arora was forced to pay 3 million in his settlement, then in consideration that no other docs would be pursued legally, he paid 4.5 million. But the ABIM went after the e-mail chain of ABR attendees anyway. So, what is true? The settlement (actual) will disprove this. Otherwise ABIM would be proud to show the world how much they got. The heavy legal fees noted on the 990's would offset the losses in 2009 if this huge settlement claim were true.
There's a conversation/surprise phone call he mentions from Christine Casell to twist his arm with propaganda to try to explain that ABIM/ABMS was not a double-dipping extortion scheme. Video says Rich Baron was groomed for the CEO's job. No national job hunt as Wachter claimed. Talks about hits on physicians for being anti-MOC, dissident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky2MNVjIBcI
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