This morning I will be speaking at the AMA House of Delegates Meeting in downtown Chicago at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 151 Upper East Wacker Drive, Columbus Room E-F at 09:00 AM CST to encourage the abandonment of ABMS MOC re-certification for other alternatives.
For those unable to make the talk, you can download the full Powerpoint presentation here.
-Wes
14 comments:
ROCK ON DR WES!
Excellent presentation. The rule by corrupt regime has been exposed.
"Not I," said the handful of unvetted self-appointed CEO's without term limits reigning at the ABIM--and every ABMS member board--for the past five decades.
AMA is a parent organization of the ABIM along with the ACP. I believe it is incumbent on AMA's House of Delegates and the ACP Governors to make efforts to restore physician and patient trust in the ABIM and other ABMS member boards. Re-establishing original principles and practice of voluntary participation in certification would, in my opinion, go a long way to restore confidence and order.
The original scheme of certification does not include the requirement or participation in ABMS MOC. Certification must be for life as it was in the beginning. We should restore this or face the possibility of losing it all and our boards and societies might revert into an organized chaos without support. State CME has always been deemed sufficient for licensure and any clinical work in medicine. The founding members of the ABIM felt it was so for the majority of decades of the organization's existence.
AMA and ACP should initiate and support legislation that protects physicians' and patients' right to care without payer or hospital interference. I am referring to the unproven, divisive, onerous and discriminatory requirements and practice of ABMS MOC. We all support an end to MOC. The AMA and ACP should do everything in their power to end MOC giving financial support toward efforts to bring about the cessation of this useless and potentially harmful and ruinous requirement attached to certification.
By seeing nothing and doing nothing we all lose. We are exhausted by onerous useless tasks and red tape. And the financial burden of MOCxation will only get worse. The ABMS' synergistic new business models will bury us with annual costly tests using CAVEON's or other third-party spies to invade our homes, offices, and private lives. This is inevitable and in planning stages now, if we don't bury their corrupt practices and illegal constitutional violations against us first.
How could Nora and Baron not understand that even one physician's failure is their failure. How could Nora and ABMS not feel it in their solar plexus, not realize it with their minds. Likewise, how can physicians not recognize that the failure and corruption of the ABMS is also our own failure.
It is obvious we need to clean house at the ABMS. So many physicians are fed up with these organizations and their stupid streaming requirements, mandates, endless collections of more money to the point that we scream and contemplate getting out of medicine altogether.
Medicine cannot survive without physicians. But it can survive quite well--even flourish--without professional medical bureaucrats like Baron, Nora, Wise, Wachter, Benson, Holmboe, Kimball and Cassel.
I do not think that any investigation from outside government agencies will serve the medical community. It will only expose the deficiencies and expose the extent of the corruption. The public does not need to see the excesses of our bureaucratic overreaches nor do we need to shake out the dirty laundry in public view. We do not need to keep putting our finger in the dike like denying fools and thereby continue to expose our scandals to the media or find our names along with our member boards and societies displayed in the court records. Once the Pandora's box of litigation opens the possibility for endless suits by physicians and the public ensues like a relentless flood.
Physicians and our protective umbrellas can work together to solve the crisis.
But, we should all agree, physician, bureaucrat, governor and delegate alike, if MOC is not ended completely, we should all clamor to demand that the DOJ investigate "medicines house of cards" along with as many other federal agencies is needed to see that there is a complete shake-up and remedies in place that such corruption will never plague the house of medicine again.
And we should all seek that our federal agencies prosecute any individuals involved in wrongdoing or manipulation or our evaluatory member boards to the fullest extent of the law. There is not room for political action committees and egregious self-inurement at the expense of physicians and the public. What we see is not just negligence and intellectual medical malpractice, but potential criminal acts that require the appropriate indictments and punishments that go far beyond fines and mere wrist slaps.
I do not take lightly the destruction of our constitutional rights through invasion of physicians' privacy and other sordid activities to alienate citizens or residents from enjoying their/our complete constitutional rights. Furthermore, I do not accept, condone, or in any way wish to foster the possible outcome or even the appearance of it that the entire ABMS has been exposed to and influenced by individuals with intentions to turn the organization into a cartel run by profiteers or a syndicate of greedy felonious cheats and sleazy aggressive attorneys. The evidence points toward just such horrendous scenarios and we should all be livid about it.
We all must consider this. The ABMS would never survive an indictment--let alone prosecution--based on RICO charges. The possibility that the ABMS has been engaged in racketeering is something that we should all not encourage or gamble with the results such an inquiry and investigation would shower upon our heads. I have seen the evidence for this and it is truly alarming. Yes, I have read Wes Fishers writing and Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald as many of the US audience and our overseas partners' residents have. But there is much more that has not been brought out as evidence. The hidden partnerships that have developed over the past several years is sobering and if mandated MOC does not end completely these conflicts and relationships will grow and entangle the quality assurance industry in scandal for years to come.
Democracy has been re-established in Pennsylvania with a vote of no confidence in the ABIM. Thank you Pennsylvania Medical Society. We applaud the PA Medical Society for retaining a law firm to investigate the ABIM and their corruption. We anticipate a vigorous and thorough investigation of the ABIM to follow. This investigation should have a spillover effect revealing collusion of executive offices of the ABMS and many of its associates. We welcome other state medical societies participation and would like to contribute financially ourselves to such an important 'taskforce of attorneys' answers but foremost we would hope they would be seeking to establish order and rule of law in our society, which has been usurped by 'bad state actors' as we find at the ABIM/ABMS and its partners.
I vote to shut it down. Sell whatever has any value and distribute the proceeds minus any debt back to the clients. Then we will get a true accounting of the corporation.
Wes, did you discuss Benjamin Mannes with anyone at the AMA delegates meeting or possibly when you saw Dr. Lois Nora, head of the ABMS? Has anyone called the police yet or the FBI? The fact that ABIM/ABMS has a known violent felon who retaliated against a reporter to the extent that he was terminated for it, is disturbing to say the least. In light of the Orlando shootings, and looking at Mannes background, there are parallels and warning signs that could lead to possible violence from Mr. Mannes.
He has obviously targeted physicians in the past with his "ongoing investigations," now there is backlash from physicians of an extraordinary nature as he is now discovered and Mannes may not be psychologically tempered to handle the backlash without some public exhibition of an explosive nature. I am obviously concerned about firearms and public safety as we all are.
Mannes in his sting operation against physicians clearly acted improperly. As I understand it now there were obvious violations of civil liberties against physicians and board review courses. He obviously has little regard for lives of others and this frightens many of us. The methods used involved in the spying against Arora and the physicians involved deception and egregious misrepresentation of himself and facts to the public and then to federal court system. No one can trust Mannes, imo. He dealt with with board courses violently harming many physicians lives as a result and it makes Mannes' past offenses seem minor in comparison. I consider these sting operations against physicians to be highly illegal. The damage is incomparable to anything physicians have known from a member board in the past.
Why am I doubly concerned? The shooter in the Orlando massacre where 50 people died and 53 seriously wounded was working in private security, as was Mannes, and Mateen the shooter purchased legally two firearms only days before the slaughter. There was no warning. No one suspected or anticipated it. Mannes worked at a nightclub as well. His gun carried at the time 13 rounds of very lethal firepower. I believe that the police and the FBI should vet and question this man Mannes for possible future perpetration of further violence against others. I feel obligated to warn you and others about this possible threat to you or others.
From the Telegraph...
"Mr Obama is to visit Orlando on Thursday to pay respects to families of the victims.
Meanwhile, security firm G4S was under scrutiny over its vetting of security personnel after it emerged that Mateen had been employed by the world’s biggest guarding company for almost a decade.
The gunman had been working at a gated retirement community prior to the deaths in Orlando, G4S confirmed Monday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation had studied Mateen twice, each time dropping its enquiries, according to an agency spokesman. UK-based G4S said it had learned of the FBI’s interest in 2013 but was unaware of any further probe, adding that the 29-year-old had cleared its own internal processes."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/14/orlando-gunman-was-a-regular-at-lgbt-nightclub-pulse-before-atta/
Did Mannes clear the FBI background check? I understand InfraGard (a non-profit FBI non-governmental agency) which Mannes has been involved in for a few years does not require a thorough background check. They only ask questions on the application if you were ever convicted. I called InfraGard and the FBI, but they will no answer any questions about anything. Who are these people and what is Mannes doing there with his record. Who is aiding and abetting him in his romp over physicians and private citizens. Mannes did not prison time for his felony convictions--he got a walk and one year probation when most people would get 10 years. Who does he really work for? Caveon or the ABIM. ABIM claims that they have Mannes and so does Caveon They even have official phone numbers. What gives? What are the conflicts of interest and what frightening things is Drs. Nora and Baron cooking up for us. He is obviously being aided by some powerful sources in Philadelphia. Who will be the next to be harmed! Doesn't anybody have any sense at the ABIM. I want some statement from Baron with a complete profile and how this Mannes was vetted and I want it now!
Concerning the ABIM's "Director of Investigations" A. Benjamin Mannes: he does have two felonies mentioned under the former name Ariel B. Mannes. I found the court case file and verified it. How did he slip through the cracks at ABIM. Or did he? I want to know.
I have become quite suspicious of the ABIM. I believe we all should inform ourselves about these new revelations of criminal activity/scandal at the ABIM. It gets worse the more we find out. We need the PA Medical Society attorneys to get the DOJ involved.
I want the DOJ to seriously investigate the ABIM's wrongdoing. We need all this brought to light for the public and body of busy physicians to see what horrors they have been paying fro. I'm finding there is enough to keep the DOJ busy for years.
Have they (DOJ) started to protect the public from the ABIM's racketeering schemes, yet. Has the DOJ given physicians' assurances that past constitutional violations and transgressions will not be repeated against any physician. Has the DOJ yet told us about the possibility of receiving some restitution for the criminal acts and constitutional violations that ABIM is guilty of.
How embarrassing that was for Nora and the ABMS. Their boards embarrassment of her inability to represent them or articulate an intelligent statement to a simple question is very sad. Fairly certin this will be the last time she will be speaking in public for the ABMS without a written prepared talk.
"Fairly certain this will be the last time she [ABMS CEO Nora] will be speaking in public for the ABMS without a written prepared talk."
Lois Nora's blood pressure was 175/120 the moment Wes' question registered in her brain--which was quite distracted at the time. Local impressions were blurry and very far away at the moment of impact.
The left half of Nora's brain cogitating stuck on incorporating MOC as an annual fee-based 'pay-for-play' model going forward in-perpetuity. Secondary thoughts colliding with dissenting reality and the financial necessity of keeping the 10-year testing regime as a backup plan--at an additional lofty cost plus any applicable late fines--for those who do poorly or perchance fail on the annual online proctored test. (Brought to you by ABMS/Caveon/Kryterion.)
The right half of Dr. Nora's brain was drifting after hitting a troublesome bump in the cerebral road triggering all kinds of misfires of worry about DOJ racketeering charges being leveled by the government against her, Dr. Baron, and 23 other CEOs of the ABMS cartel.
Yes, only vetted questions from here on out due to the crises involving unvetted ABMS/ABIM personnel--'directors', officers, attorneys, and risk managers involved in developing risky business models that give the unabashed appearance of egregious conflicts of interest, public fraud, price rigging, and regulatory capture to maintain their racketeering empire.
When Dr. Nora composed herself again, in the blink of an eye, her momentary mental lapse with the appearance of ignorance was transformed into a vetted display of good old fashioned well-rehearsed plausible deniability.
On Tuesday blood pressure still up and an A1C of 9. All within the normal range for a pseudo-doc and successor of those who choose wise.
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