Wednesday, July 13, 2016

ABMS vs The Poor

The chilling reality of what is happening to patients when the ABMS changes the definition of what is required to be Board certified and ties it to Medicaid payments:
CMS officials disagree, saying in so many words that it's "unfortunate," but these Tennessee doctors skipped over the details on who, and what services, qualified for the additional pay.

First, CMS rules specified that Medicaid providers had to be board certified in internal medicine, family medicine or pediatrics. These doctors weren't, in part because in rural areas, hospitals often don't require board certification and, for older doctors, it wasn't a mandate after training.

Second, for doctors without board certification, their status as primary care providers could be documented if 60% of the codes they submitted in their claims were for a select set of primary care evaluation and management (E&M) or vaccination services, not specialty services.
So for those doubters out there that thought this "physician" Maintenance of Certification (MOC) discussion was a "physician issue" and did not pertain to patient care delivery, think again.

-Wes

Reference:

MedPageToday: Medicaid Boom Turns to Bust for Tennessee Docs - Lack of certification triggers payback requirement

26 comments:

Ed Rico said...

Bravo, CMS and your co-conspirators at ABMS. Not only have you stiffed the physicians providing care in these locations but you cut the throats of the patients who are completely dependent on these physicians for their care. It's conspicuously noteworthy that this isn't about the quality of care provided by these physicians to their patients, it's entirely a matter of collusion to enforce ABMS "pay-to-play", which is entirely transparent as the true motivation for Board Certification and MOC. More evidence-free "Choosing Wisely", right?

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I've never been confused on this issue. I'm obviously not going into too much detail here, but I could EASILY have gotten my life back TWO+ YEARS AGO--IF I had proper medical care instead of deliberate obstruction, lies and plundering.

Lots of Racial Robin Hood going on, and the House of Medicine is it's most recent victim. The doctors are some of the people who fetishized diversity to the point where only genocide of white people would really appease this strange white guilt drilled into you for being mostly agreeable, studious and hard working instead of being the oppressed group that must slaughter it's own members--for Jesus loves these little ones--not that white God-fearing law-abiding obedient "trash"

The whole MSF crowd deep down inside prefers the 3rd worlders whom they can pamper as they would a Pomeranian toted around in an old ladies' purse, kissed and spoken to as a spouse except in baby-talk...OMG Poopsie! Are you okay? Let's go get you a treat sweetie, my baby. A real baby--especially a white one--that doesn't matter as much. But a third worlder whose soooooooo adorable, with all their STDs--they just need more love and training on how to stop crapping in public and raping everything--and of course the finest medical care. Some of the TB cases cost US taxpayers a half-million to treat. But it's all worth it, just knowing they can spawn a dozen welfare babies. That's what America is all about--not the people who BUILT this country--F'ing has-beens, they should just go home to--screw it they don't deserve a home. We're all about 3rd worlders now--we're almost there, just gotta get rid of the white folks and everything will be okay.

One day when you're old and in that nursing home, guess whose changing your diaper...and giving that special kind of love. Good luck

Ha, you know who it is but I'll put "Anonymous" because Wes will reject the comment anyway for truth-telling about things that "aren't nice"

Thomas Nielsen said...

Wow, not sure how to respond after the "Anonymous" comment. While I can empathize with the feelings behind the post I think the anger is a bit misdirected. Those types of comments painting minorities and "3rd worlders" as inferior and deserving of contempt betray a racism and bigotry that are outdated and will not likely sway any opinions.

I do not fault any "3rd worlders" for their aspirations - they only want the best for themselves and their families. Where many societies have failed is in their lack of freedom and opportunity. Unfortunately governments, while put in place for the furtherance of man, often become obstacles to freedom, initiative, and opportunity.

This is precisely the situation we have with CMS, ABMS, AHA (the hospital association, not the heart association), ABIM, and all of the other specialty societies who have colluded for their own self interest and are impeding medical care. This governance of medicine, which was accepted by doctors as a reasonable way to show competence, has taken on a sinister self-serving motive.

All of the people involved in the "quality" movement have been tainted by this. Ethical boundaries were long ago cast away and now we see that laws have been broken. It is time for those responsible to be taken to task for this. Resignations would be a good start. Jail time would be even better.

Art Fougner MD said...

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. - Ronald Wilson Reagan

Anonymous said...



This fraudulent CMS inducement plan is designed to create the net effect of healthcare rationing through regulatory capture. This scheme is no different in effect than ABMS's fraudulent practice of pass/fail. This mandated MOC/Certification scam creates a staggeringly high failure/dropout rate. With no scientific proof to back up the mandated ABMS certification/MOC programs, we can reasonably conclude that the failure and dropout rates are by design.

Physicians are squeezed out as part of a healthcare access/bottleneck plan is a blueprint thought up by actuaries and statisticians working for the ABMS and other stakeholders to limit care. The fact that this has been going on for decades, even though internal statistical data at the ABMS member boards is proof enough.

Uncertified phycians in Tennessee and other states are now under Andy Slavitts' unyielding gun to pay CMS back; they will be required to pay the money already dispensed or they will for various reasons be forced out of practice and the net result is there will be more and more patients in the end without care. The lagging statistics will not present the facts. Delayed numbers will not serve to illuminate the real time graph of physician numbers and access to competent care in sharp decline.

The MSM media will not follow it to air the problem and it will go unnoticed. The ABMS will go back to congress and report on their progress. The administration will publish in another AMA journal how the ACA is bringing patients previously uninsured into the system, leaving out the bit that there will be no one trained to sufficiently care for them.

Nurse practitioners will not be able to fill the void. Frankly speaking our direct observation of rural health care in another couple of states unfortunately spells future trouble. Rising number of nurse practioner and PA's, a deficit of nurses and exiting physicians spells increased delays, ignoring troubling patients with morbidities, co-morbidities, and deaths on the sharp increase. (Not to mention an increase in inexperienced administrators to create further bottlenecks to care.)

Any eager high school graduate or with a GED equivalent, could be hired to record the higher number of phone calls with physician referrals from NPs and PAs, who could not manage anyone not fitting the norm of primarily well patients. Large numbers of problems go undetected or ignored. The increase in numbers of unaddressed morbidities and deaths is shocking from what and others see. Something needs to be done immediately. There is a political whitewash of the real problems coming from both sides of the political aisle.

And this sick process all pumps money into the ABMS MOC/Certification scheme directly into Richard Baron and Lois Nora's domestic and "offshore" investment accounts.

The physician squeeze. Pass/fail scam and regulatory capture.
Fraudulent testing scams and undisclosed lobbying with direct influence pedaling for regulatory capture points to Chicago, Philly and DC.

The ABMS: a corrupt umbrella organization involved in racketeering, their complicit member boards and crony executives.

It is ironic, when our FBI and ATF agents have gone to great pains and expense eradicating organized crime in our great country that we find a branch of Health and Human Services joining forces with corrupt self-serving politically motivated "servants of public trust". I am speaking about the HHS/CMS being complicit with an organization like the ABMS, which in our opinion should be under investigation for racketeering.

This does not bode well for our hallowed government healthcare bureaus and the hundreds of NGO's they count on to regulate the healthcare system on their behalf when the professionals and the public have in their highly vocalized dissatisfaction have already lost trust.

Anonymous said...

ABMS is unaccountable and unregulated. That is the heart of the problem. They lied to/misled congress under oath. See direct congressional lobbying at the end by ABMS CEO Kevin Weiss. No c-span video cameras were allowed in the room even though Senator Grassley has repeatedly asked for public access and for the voter to be a part of government.

From 2008 ABMS Kevin Weiss "testimony" before the Senate committee on finance discussing regulation/control of physicians and healthcare reform.

"We believe no single strategy is sufficient to improve our health care system. To cross the chasm that exist in quality, we believe that multiple strategies are needed to leverage the distinct and potentially complimentary roll of regulation, the market AND professional accountability.

2008 Senate committee on finance. ABMS quietly sells out physicians.
http://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/090908kwtest.pdf

EPT Enhanced Public Trust
https://www.certificationmatters.org/Portals/0/pdf/ABMS_EPTI2008-2011_ProgressReport.pdf

ABMS Hype: Myths and "facts" in the storytellers own words.
Voluntary and mandatory are clarified.
http://www.abms.org/media/1318/abms-myths-and-facts.pdf

Weiss went through the ACGME revolving door after doing the damage. No unlike Eric Holmboe, one of Cassel and Baron's henchman who was "promoted" to a cush job at the ACGME.

http://www.acgme.org/About-Us/Board-and-Staff/Executive-Staff/Executive-Staff-Bio/ArticleID/133/Kevin-B-Weiss-MD

ABMS F*scism said...

ABMS: Under a false flag of “quality.” (This is a relevant paper and hits the towering problem of corrupt power, self-inurement and cronyism.)

Conclusion: MOC is a key part of the elite’s agenda to seize control of medical decision-making, for their own financial self-interest, under a false flag of “quality.” Physicians and patients must thwart the intrusion of these “stakeholders” into the sacred patient-physician relationship.

Kenneth D. Christman, M.D., practices plastic and reconstructive surgery in Dayton, Ohio. He was certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery in 1982. Contact: KSCDChristman@aol.com.

http://www.jpands.org/vol18no3/christman.pdf

Anonymous said...

Add in "Choosing Wisely" into your article's disconcerting content and we have ABMS versus the poor, elderly, veterans and all the rest.

Anonymous said...

The next letter the TMA writes should be directed to the state legislators cc'd on their letter to Andy Slavitts. The content should be to propose and enact the same Oklahoma legislation or better banning mandatory MOC to protect the patient and physician rights. Make the legislation retroactive to cover the 2013 disputes.
Tack on a recommendation that the AG prosecute the ABMS and others for misleading congress, HHS, TC and the CMS.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2972744-Letter-1-TMA-Letter-to-CMS-Re-PCP-Increased.html

Anonymous said...

To honestly anonymous:

I believe that pain and anger are real emotions whatever content is expressed. Thank you for sharing something real and the things inside you, and for being brave enough to share your very perceptive thoughts with us. Feelings are powerful engines--the can be strong drivers of change. The emotions can also penetrate deeper and discover things in ways the head cannot.

I had an interesting experience yesterday asking people while shopping if their presidential candidate was still in the race. Out of twelve people I spoke with I did not find one person who was going to vote at all. Various reasons were cited. The last person I spoke with said that politics will not change anything and it was a distraction, so he was focusing on making his life better for himself and those around him. By the way, it was a mix of different American ethnicities I spoke with. Another said they voted last in 2000; but after the scandal between hanging chads and the Supreme Court rulings, they gave up voting, but liked to follow politics to be informed.

Out of the twelve people I spoke with, nobody trusted Hillary and the typical media hype was quoted against Donald. He was anti-Semitic for example. He was a racist. I was trying to just let each person speak. Another person said something else that was interesting. He was Africa American and said that we have to vote with who we are in our daily lives and through that daily path he said that we would change the world for the better. He did not think highly of black lives matter--too much anger and even hatred generated. He thought it was funded by people who wanted violence to divide people. No transparency on their website. He did not know why they claimed NOT to push hatred, when in fact they did.

The exchanges were thoughtful and amicable. Someone else said instead of thinking about politics they wanted to make each day the very best day and was thankful each morning just to be alive.

What I notice is that we can be better or worse people from our cultural and ethnic identities depending on how we were brought up and with whatever kernels of wisdom we live by and what we good and wholesome things we pursue with our given talents. My family came from Europe in the mid to late 19th century and mixed with the ethnic pot losing the cultural identity and the language.

Again I really appreciated your passion. Take one ounce of your pure passion and put it into a thousand thimbles; pass that passion around to make this world a better and more understanding place. Emotions can help us see when we are not clouded. Too many clouded emotions out there.

Perhaps a dozen thimblefuls for the people fighting MOC and the ABMS corruption. It only takes a few people to literally change the world around us. If we want to change the world for the better it probably has to start with ourselves. If we want to help others we must be a clear, reasonable and cogent message, but not without some degree of fire. Not too hot and not too cold. Like the three bears. And be vigilant and not to fall asleep.

Humanity, intelligence and the level of culture has perhaps declined over the past decades in many ways. We have a very crowded planet with limited resources. What you said added a color to the conversation here and that gave it savor and spice.

Thank you and to Wes for his blog.

Anonymous said...

Every state needs to protect physicians and patients from the ABMS MOC shakedown.
Pass legislation in every state like Oklahoma.

Sincerely Anonymous said...

A lot of intelligent people on your blog, Wes.

We need to keep working on these important issues together. It's my hope that more and more of the thoughtful, feeling people in the medical societies, especially the AMA, will start seeing the dangers we face together and start acting to solve these dilemmas, such as how to end MOC immediately.

Strange how things work, but making that one change to end mandatory MOC will improve the lives of physicians and patients for the better exponentially. So much better that the money which the societies are lacking now, needed for keeping the societies relevant and viable, will start pouring back in with the spirit of freedom to choose. And that freedom and ability to choose CME and focus will make a better doc, because one has the passion for it. That freedom translates into energy to do.

Right now the psychological mix inside is anger and resentment. Not a pretty thing. It makes resistance. That resistance drains force and it creates negative results; therefore it is a wrong approach to education. That fatigue and a frustration level is high from truncated lives and limited time with patients. Docs also steam inside at the interruptions from their practice to take care of AMBS busy work.

It is all so simple. One action, one real meaningful gesture given in the spirit of humanity and generosity would make such a difference.

Anonymous said...

Testimony to congress 2008 (ABMS, NQF, etc)

Anyone else on what Congress can, and should, do to speed this
along?
Dr. SCHOEN. One thing I would state is that there is no way that
you can go from a low level of performance to a high one without
some initial costs that are not going to be long-term. So the fundamental
understanding that we have to fund that start-up cost to
get over the hump to better quality, I think, is a piece of what has
to be in the improvement process. That might be in paying people
who have the knowledge or are the experts to go and teach those
who are not.
The CHAIRMAN. All right.
Dr. Weiss?
Dr. WEISS. I just want to echo Dr. Roper’s comment about
AHCRQ as a vehicle within the government that is under-funded
and needs to be helped. But I do not know that I have the wisdom
to understand exactly how much more money is needed.
The CHAIRMAN. And not only money, but what can we do? What
can Congress do to move this along aggressively?
Dr. WEISS. Exactly. So I do not know that more money is going
to answer the quality problem. You have three major, and a number
of smaller oversight bodies in the public sector. You have the
Joint Commission, NCQA, and the boards that are not necessarily
fully aligned with each other or with Congress. That does not cost
money to create that alignment. It creates a will. To bring those
to bear in a different and new way may be a nice, new opportunity.
The CHAIRMAN. But basically do you agree with Dr. Roper that
more dollars have to be at risk here, both public and private, with
respect to quality?
Dr. WEISS. I have to say that, from the board’s perspective, we
are not about changing quality for dollars, we are about quality for
quality and professional accountability.
The CHAIRMAN. But you need dollars to make it happen.
Dr. WEISS. I am reminded of what my colleague and friend, Dr.
Don Berwick says. The U.S. is the only system that has the most
expensive health care, that is 5 times as expensive as the most expensive
health care. I hope it is Dr. Berwick, and that I got it right
there. We have a very expensive health care system. I do not know
how much more money it is going to take to make it better. I actually
think it takes professional accountability and more oversight
that will help, in a positive way, to bring us forward in addition
to the other things going on.
The CHAIRMAN. The theory is, it will bring down costs in other
areas.
Dr. WEISS. It will, at minimum, help slow the costs and reduce
the unnecessary work going on.

http://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/58445.pdf

Anonymous said...

While the NQF and ABMS in 2008 were testifying before congress (posted above) the chairman of the Safe Practices Committee Chuck Denham was according to the DOJ receiving kickbacks from an NQF stakeholder/client CareFusion to the tune of nearly 12 million dollars. Senator Grassley was very concerned when he learned of this and the conflicts of interest of the ABIM's own Christine Cassel when she was CEO of the NQF.

"The DOJ settlement resolves allegations that, under agreements entered into in 2008 by CareFusion’s predecessor, CareFusion paid $11.6 million in kickbacks to Dr. Charles Denham while Denham served as the co-chair of the Safe Practices Committee at the National Quality Forum, a non-profit organization that reviews, endorses and recommends standardized health care performance measures and practices. The government contends that the purpose of those payments was to induce Denham to recommend, promote and arrange for the purchase of ChloraPrep by health care providers. ChloraPrep has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the preparation of a patient’s skin prior to surgery or injection."

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/carefusion-pay-government-401-million-resolve-allegations-include-more-11-million-kickbacks

Anonymous said...

2008 was the year the Ariel Benjamin Mannes, a goon-cop/violent felon was hired by the ABIM to create fear and intimidation in the rank and file physicians. The ABIM as lead ABMS organization worked a scheme to secure the market share for the ABIM and ABMS.

Mannes, Cassel, Langdon, and Baron used strong-arm tactics and persecution of many vulnerable ABIM clients of to improve the bottom line by creating what some might describe as an organization of terror. This began with a highly controversial investigation of non-ACP/ABIM aligned board review courses and attendees. Cassel, Baron, Langdon, Holmboe, Baranowski, Wachter and others went way outside their job descriptions in attacking physicians. They violated civil liberties and invaded the privacy of thousands of physicians. The hypocrisy of the ABIM/ABMS' public face and the horrific treatment of physicians has still not been investigated properly, nor has it been discussed openly and transparently by the ABIM or ABMS executives. IMO all of the ABIM/ABMS individuals involved should have lost their jobs immediately and been sanctioned and fined.

The above testimony in Congress typifies the manipulative and misleading data presented by the ABMS, NQF and others. The darker personal aspects of the individuals and deceitful ways the ABIM/ABMS operated is being understood by increasing numbers of physicians who are enraged and appalled.

The Great American Healthcare Heist: Private Sector Oversight said...

ABMS Corruption: graft, racketeering, lying to congress, betrayal of colleagues and defrauding the American public.

Our present incarnation of big government and its corrupt, bloated bureaucracy has gotten us in great trouble. Way out of control. It's time to reverse the direction and start intelligently slashing the quality assurance programs. The costs these quality assurance executives inflict on the healthcare system are incommensurate with the value they provide. Most of the executive/administrative jobs are artificially created and the big money boards grant to them are outrageous. With such outrageous compensation comes outrageous behavior. Christine Cassel (ABIM, Kaiser, NQF), Rich Baron, (ABIM, CMS) Kevin Weiss (ABMS, ACGME) and Lois Nora (ABMS) are prime examples of such a bloated bureaucracy.

They meet quietly with stakeholders, business partners and congress to undermine the healthcare system just to benefit their own personal bank accounts and the continuity of such big paydays, whichever organization in the "new medical order" they choose after selling out their colleagues, but especially defrauding and cheating the American patient population.

"You have the Joint Commission, NCQA, and the boards that are not necessarily
fully aligned with each other or with Congress. That does not cost
money to create that alignment. It creates a will. To bring those
to bear in a different and new way may be a nice, new opportunity."
- ABMS CEO, Kevin Weiss 2008

http://www.finance.senate.gov/download/2008/09/09/improving-health-care-quality-an-integral-step-toward-health-reform

http://www.ncqa.org/about-ncqa
https://www.jointcommission.org/about_us/about_the_joint_commission_main.aspx
http://www.abms.org/about-abms/leadership-team/
http://www.qualityforum.org/About_NQF/
http://www.ahrq.gov/

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I checked back and saw this outrageously racist and warped reply by Thomas Nielsen. It's quite urgent to address these misconceptions.

Mr. Nielsen wrote that "racism and bigotry that are outdated and will not likely sway any opinions" so he lumps EVERYONE into his twisted thinking that it is racist to save a White life, of an American citizen who keeps shelling out money for insurance coverage and has met THREE high deductibles. Because of being KEPT incapacitated instead of receiving timely treatment, there has been theft of livelihood, and a strong possibility of never returning to work, permanent organ damage and death. But that's OKAY because it's just a White US Citizen. Don't we just DESERVE a hard kick in the teeth and anything else?

Meanwhile, Mr. Nielsen wrote that "I do not fault any "3rd worlders" for their aspirations" to the resources of US Citizens. The problem here is that unusually many people think just like Mr. Nielsen: that the US Constitution GUARANTEES the rights of foreign invaders to plunder all of what Americans work hard for, that it is the duty of every American to do without so that we can pamper foreign invaders. That's one of the biggest problems with this country.

What makes Mr. Nielsen a particularly tragic example of a failed culture is that there are many who share in his distorted outlook on the facts. And what makes THIS GROUP who reads THIS blog of particular concern is that VERY OFTEN you spout off about how Administrators and CMS and Cassel and other healthcare banksters deserve HARD JAIL TIME.

Meanwhile, the doctor who INTENTIONALLY executes a patient (at most we'll call it medical error) is on the moral high-road as long as that physician fetishizes third-worlders and considers their lives to be so far superior to a White American, that murder becomes an act of benevolence.

Is this exaggeration? NOT ONE BIT, absolutely not one bit. You just won't see it on the news because only when something happens to a non-White, especially if we can demonize White people--only then is it all over the news. This double-standard that the medical aristocracy has is lawless and evil--but then you expect "Justice" because you lost a few dollars to the ABIM and feel stiffed by CMS. You are making a little less money and having a lot more hassle--and for that JAIL TIME. And yet, some of you are fine with Patient Executions...just fine...it's what your jesus would do. It makes you gods. You are more moral and more superior because you are willing to snuff out innocent White lives--if there is such a thing--yes, let's jail people for being white--let's do it like that. Less messy, less risk of a slap on the wrist for intentionally killing a human being. Killing sometimes means time off in the court system...OMFG not that. Let's innovate better execution methods, where are the doctor advocates? We need help, so much blood on our hands and how to cover it up.

So all that said, I will say also that there are good doctors. I found @doctorwes and his blog last year when I was looking for a ray of hope. Is there at LEAST ONE doctor who shares my moral compass? Is there at least ONE left who talks the ethics I heard spoken about medicine as a young girl? Yes. There's even more than one.

Anonymous said...

I'm not one to project, but when I look at Andy Slavitt's header pic I can almost imagine what they're saying and this gives me chills. Does anyone else feel like a handful of adminstrators and politicians will thrive, and the rest of us are totally screwed?

PC said...

I don't know what happened to the patient above who claims to have been harmed by a doctor. My own father is dead because of the current system in place that has turned our country into the nation with highest costing healthcare in the world, yet many patients in this country are getting third-world results. Especially where a physician's high level of training is replaced by mid-level providers to cut costs or hospital access is restricted for whatever reason. There are many of us who are angry. In my father's case it has to do with hospital admissions policy and many other recently changed mandates/policies that limited his access to care. He was fully insured.

Not understanding all the links in the healthcare chain can lead many patients to conclude it is a doctor's fault. And sometimes it is. Patients blame their doctors for the high cost of their medications. "I don't like you because you prescribe expensive drugs."

But I see the system is failing more than physicians. In rural areas we see the greatest pain regarding poor healthcare resources. Prior to Obama Care urban area hospitals were seeing a great deal of un-insured patients and now the underinsured now translates as Medicaid strain. It has also resulted in many commercially insured to holler that their care and coverage is inferior to the Medicaid. Someone has to pay for it. Taking away form Peter to pay Paul, is how some think about it. And Paul is crying out about it. Medications that patients need are not affordable to many or affordable only part of the year until they fall into the proverbial affordability hole.

What we have been given is a false hope of affordable coverage with the ACA. Higher wages touted by the current administration are possibly even a scam to get more young people paying into a system that doesn't not work, but serves only to fulfill a corporate agenda and future presidential legacy. That legacy is shattered already. Higher wages a possible scam that translates to an even less livable wage for housing, clothing, medicines and food. The insecurity continues with the pressures to pay the government more and more just for Washington to have greater control over our lives and money. The government has squandered trillions in creating an immigration crisis with war zones all over the planet! How do we square with that evil debt?

I hear many say that it is not fair that people who paid into our Medicare system all their lives can't find a physician or are placed on a waiting list in lieu of many who did not pay at all and often do not even want to work or pay into the system (including illegal immigrants and refugees from our bad policies and wars). I can fully empathize with the real world pain of a patient who worked and paid in and paid up for decades, but got sent to the back of the line as far as timeliness of care and results go.

ditto said...

Real world experience should inform and advise the above blogger patient that if we look at the bulk of patient notes the data do not support a theory that there are bad immoral doctors. On the contrary we have a cold heartless corporate system on the rampage that is cutting back so much on everything that a physician cannot do their job. Or the specialists are just not there that are needed for complete care. The end effect is that we get second and third rate results. Time and onerous bureaucratic tasks laid on physicians are just part of it. But an important part of it. MOC is one of those useless components. We are glad to have a patient's support who sees Dr. Fisher as an outstanding moral leader and physician. We believe the same. We appreciate the support and need that show of trust.

Docs are leaving medicine because they cannot tolerate it any longer. It has become a bad system that restricts free exercise of scientific judgment. If you work for yourself, you are put out of small business. You have to join a larger institution and then that in turn gets bought out. This is the controlling of physicians through the purse and large enterprise.

Washington has colluded with healthcare industry giants to produce this perilous situation. The moral thing to do is stay and fight the bureaucracy, but the unaccountability of the private sector bureaucracy and corruption of those involved in many years of Washington's meddling makes one feel it is hopeless. Washington has been playing Dr. Frankenstein with healthcare reform to the point that everyone has slowly been overwhelmed and it breaks the will. Medicine is a political pawn for many reasons. Physicians have been turned into political pawns for money and power of the ruling elites.

Some of the current dilemma is about getting votes for the ruling party in the White House. (I am circumspect, bipartisan, and not making political hay in my statements.)

Physicians should listen to the anger that a patient presents here on this blog; one day it will be any one of us with a disabling condition when the only medical care available in your retirement community is a PA and MA specializing in geriatric care. Right now an angry voice is telling us something. Healthcare and our government interventions have disabled the ability to deliver care. Medicine should be dictated by the Hippocratic oath, science and our conscience and not disabling government.

That is the condition of the healthcare system under corporate/Wall Street/socialist regime. It is a regime that fooled both Republican and Democrat. It is a horrible system that places ideology/social experimentation and profit/cost savings above decades of pragmatic achievement, moral code and common sense care. It turns medicine into a machine and not a humanitarian fraternity.

To the patient who cries out that something is broken, we should thank them. We need to examine what they are saying more closely and get to the bottom of it and remedy the situation. Otherwise everyone and everything will be disabled or meet their demise under the influence of corrupt policy makers and mis-informed legislators.

For goodness sake we need to get the patient and the system healthy again!

In my opinion it should not be about race. Race divides. The color of skin or national origin should not be put to the test in a nation that accepts the poor and downtrodden. It should be about a race to make things right and working again. Pain makes everyone cry out. The media colors everything and obscures the truth, this is certainly true. Pain is an indicator of something wrong and cannot be ignored or rationalized away--or neutralized because the refrains sound political incorrect.

If someone says that they have the right to sit in the front of the bus in a free democratic society, for whatever reason, maybe we should listen. The health and welfare of our country is at stake.

Anonymous said...

ABIM Foundation and George Soros' Culture of Death
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1282198/

Anonymous said...

2. National Priorities Partnership and Christine Cassel [with Soros/RWJF funding]

Until his appointment to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare this summer, Berwick was co-chair of the National Priorities Partnership convened by the National Quality Forum. NPP is a collaborative effort of 28 major national organizations to identify a set of National Priorities and Goals and to help find high leverage areas – those with the most potential to result in substantial “improvement” in the healthcare system. In 2009/2010 the Partners identified Palliative Care and End of Life Care as one of the top five priorities for “improvement.”

Berwick put Christine Cassel in charge of this Palliative Care and EOL working group. Who is Christine Cassel? Cassel is a proponent of physician assisted suicide. She is also president of the American Board of Internal Medicine. With Timothy Quill and Diane Meier she coauthored a 1992 New England Journal of Medicine article entitled, “Care of the Hopelessly Ill: Proposed Clinical Criteria for Physician Assisted Suicide.”

With funding from George Soros, Cassel and Diane Meier co-founded the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC as it is known). CAPC aggressively markets the new sub-specialty of palliative medicine and trains people at nine Palliative Care Leadership Centers around the United States.

Let’s go back to the Euthanasia Society of America chart. Byock, Lynn, Cassel and Meier were all members of Choice in Dying and Concern for Dying. Where are they today? Lynn and Cassel are working with Berwick; Meier is advising a special Senate committee; and Byock is blogging at the New America Foundation and giving high profile interviews with the media.

Given this clear agenda it is no longer safe to assume that palliative care is still just about treating a patient’s symptoms. If that were so, why would there be a need for an entirely new subspecialty in medicine administered by a multidisciplinary team? Why must there be palliative care centers? What do they teach in these centers?

http://www.lifetree.org/newsletter/2010-11-02.html

Anonymous said...

ABIM Foundation Moves Assets Offshore. Why? Where do the execs keep personal wealth?
http://drwes.blogspot.com/2016/05/abim-foundation-moves-assets-offshore.html

Anonymous said...

Open Society Foundation, George Soros, Chairman
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/tenth_20061116.pdf

Anonymous said...

Maybe we could euthanize some of the doctors who would do it to those who still would otherwise have many healthy years ahead.

Anonymous said...

Until the bodybags pile up and the ABIM and ABMS have to step over the cadavers into their Mercedes Limo service, there will be no change. The deaths of these people are on Rich Baron et al.