Recently, the Pennsylvania Medical Society sent this letter to the executive vice presidents of all US state medical societies and many specialty societies regarding their vote of no confidence regarding the ABMS Maintenance of Certification® (MOC®) program and the current leadership at ABIM, stating specifically:
"... We believe that their current leadership is not capable of reforming the process in a timely, academically meaningful, and fiscally responsible way.For those interested in learning more or who's state is ready to sign on can email Dr. Scott Shapiro, President of the PA Medical Society at stat@pamedsoc.org for more information.
In keeping with the consensus of our members and physicians across the country, we call for the immediate replacement of the entire ABIM Board of Directors and leadership with new leadership, representative of physicians actively participating in the full-time practice of clinical medicine. The undersigned organizations would further offer to assist the ABIM and any of the ABIM subspecialties with the formation and transition to a new Board that is representative of and accountable to the physicians whom they will certify. ..."
Please forward a copy of this letter to all of your practicing physician colleagues (irrespective of specialty) and ask each of them to contact the leadership of their respective state medical societies and specialty societies to urge them to co-sign this letter and work with the PA Medical Society to end the corrupt ABMS MOC® re-certification requirement.
Only through aggressive, meaningful, nationwide collective action against this needless, unaccountable, expensive, and coercive ABMS re-certification program will practicing physicians restore sanity to our own life-long continuing medical education process.
Thank you-
-Wes
A copy of the letter to circulate to your colleagues can be downloaded here.
21 comments:
This is important to get out as it will show that the digital pen is mightier and more nimble than the powerful elites' heavy sword. The professional medical bureaucrats and their corporate partners at the ABMS have made a corrupt market off physicians blood, sweat and fears.
No confidence in the ABIM. Replace the leadership and board with clinical docs who have some common sense and fiscal integrity. Baron has been on the take long enough.
Look at how many docs ABIM hurt and lied to.
This is great news for the American Board of Pediatrics!
How will the ABMS afford to pay for goon cops like Ariel Benjamin Mannes without all those MOC fees. How will his spy-partners Caveon make the money they schemed for with ABIM's 'big brother' thug Mannes? How will Mannes' get his kickback from his online proctored testing company Kryterion if the MOC fees dry up and there are no annual MOC tests where Kryterion/Caveon takes control of your computer screen.
Hello!
I'm with them!
No more talk just end the MOC.
It's outrageous to think the ABIM got away with this scam.
'MOC IS DEAD' TO THE POWER OF 200K
Wes, you wrote, "I’m a cynic. I fear that things aren’t so pristine as 'MOC is dead.' At least not yet.
Realize that many of our specialty societies have colluded with the MOC program because it benefits them so well financially. Realize that the quality, safety, and public reporting industries have numerous COI’s with MOC, too. For instance, our MOC and that “program improvement module” data gets processed by CECity (that was purchased by Chris Cassel’s Premier, Inc for a cool $400M after she helped prop up its valuation by having the ABIM contract with CECity for $5.5M of our testing fees for four years) for their services with the data they collect sold to other credential verification companies. Credentialing physicians, you see, is a $400M/yr business, about a third or half of which is from MOC. That’s right. One Wall Street business deal with more than all of MOC put together, courtesy of Dr. Cassel. These folks LOVE MOC and will lay down on the street to defend it.
Only with strong legal action, a Congressional investigation, and indictments from the DOJ, IRS, or FTC will things really change. Heads must roll. Baron, Cassel, Wachter, Wolfson, Holmboe, Langdon, Lipner, and their accounting firm and other board members – the whole unelected and unaccountable lot – need to be investigated and prosecuted where appropriate. And let’s not forget the violation of physicians’ privacy when a two-time convicted felon “Director of Investigations” has access to our addresses and emails and has access to the FBI and Postmaster Inspector’s hotline. Jesus!
Little AMA resolutions that promise to end MOC are just window dressing, especially given the degree of cover-up, tax fraud, financial malfeasance, egregious salary distributions, fiscal mismanagement, and violations of non-profit organizational law that has occurred since at LEAST 1986. Time to end it with a thorough investigation, jail time, and heads rolling, not some quaint AMA resolution."
Wes, what you wrote rings true, and we need to support the Pennsylvania Medical Society in replacing the leadership at the ABIM. We also need to investigate the ABIM and push forward with the immediate ending of all mandatory MOC.
MEET THE ABMS $Phalanx$ (Corrupt money grabbers - out of shape, out of practice, and out of time.)
ABMS Associate Members
ABMS works in collaboration with its Associate Members to improve the quality of graduate medical education, the standards of medical practice, and the physician certification process. The Associate Members of ABMS include:
Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
Approved as an Associate Member in 2004
ACCME sets and administers standards and criteria for providers of quality Continuing Medical Education (CME) for physicians and related professions. It has the responsibility for accrediting institutions and organizations offering CME and developing standards by which state medical societies will accredit local institutions and organizations.
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
Approved as an Associate Member in 2002
ACGME is responsible for the accreditation of post-MD medical training programs in the United States. Accreditation is accomplished through Residency Review Committees (RRCs) which process the actual accreditation of residency programs. The ACGME approves the standards and deals with appeals and administrative issues.
American Hospital Association (AHA)
Approved as an Associate Member in 1970
AHA is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks and their patients and communities. Through its representation and advocacy activities, AHA ensures that members' perspectives and needs are heard and addressed in national health policy development, legislative and regulatory debate, and judicial matters. AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends.
American Medical Association (AMA)
Approved as an Associate Member in 1989
As the nation's largest physician group, AMA advocates on the issues vital to the nation's health and health care system.
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
Approved as an Associate Member in 1970
AAMC is a non-profit association of medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic societies. The AAMC seeks to improve the nation's health by enhancing the effectiveness of academic medicine.
Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS)
Approved as an Associate Member in 1973
CMSS serves to represent the views of specialist physicians in influencing policy, medical education and accreditation from a broad, cross-specialty perspective. Its membership is primarily comprised of United States medical specialty societies that represent physicians certified by an ABMS Member Board.
Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG)
Approved as an Associate Member in 2002
Through a program of certification, ECFMG assesses the readiness of international medical graduates to enter accredited residency or fellowship programs in the United States.
Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB)
Approved as an Associate Member in 1970
FSMB serves as the national voluntary association of all United States licensing and disciplinary boards. The organization promotes the adoption, maintenance and advancement of effective and uniform standards for licensure and discipline in medicine and the healing arts.
National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)
Approved as an Associate Member in 1970
The central mission of NBME is to prepare and administer qualifying examinations, either independently or jointly with other organizations, of such high quality that legal agencies governing the practice of medicine within each state may, in their discretion, grant a license without further examination for those who have successfully completed such examinations.
Will physicians fight every bit as hard to end corruption as the opposition does to create and defend it?
http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/comey-has-long-history-of-clinton-related-cases/#!
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/james-comey-has-been-covering-up-the-clintons-messes-for-decades/
Know and heal thyself!
I'd like to know how much money the ABIM staff/executives and each of the member boards of the ABMS, and their associate members' staff/executives contributed to the current presidential campaign. How much money went to Hillary Clinton or any super PAC supporting Hillary (and Bill) Clinton for 2016 president of the United States. Will Bill and Hillary be co-presidents as before from 1992-2000?
Likewise can the ABIM et al provide amounts donated to Donald Trump for 2016.
Comey testimony to the House Committee
http://www.c-span.org/video/?412315-1/fbi-director-james-comey-testifies-hillary-clinton-email-probe
Intimidation, strong-arming, invasion of privacy, violations of civil liberties
What line on the 990 filings deal with intimidation, strong arming, privacy invasion, and ignoring the bill of rights. Is there such a line to answer "yes or no" about these important details. Or is intimidation and strong-arming the new lobbying, which the ABIM claims it does not engage in - at least publicly disclosed lobbying. Is it the new ABMS normal?
What's more culpable about the ABIM and Mannes is that he has additional bad record. The man has a rap sheet and history of terminations for his violations of law and strict policy designed to protect the public that is astounding. Mannes has committed civil liberties violations against the public and has sanctions and terminations on his record as thug cop and TSA security agent, etc to prove it.
I am still waiting to hear from Dr. Baron, Suzanne Biemiller and the board of directors about these egregious violations of ABIM/ABMS policy and civil law codes designed to protect the public. Who is protecting the public and physician clients from the ABIM and ABMS?
This evidence about Mannes and his ARORA BOARD REVIEW scandal alone should be enough for the DOJ or any lawyer to ask for an immediate injunction against the activities of the ABMS/ABIM/MOC or any other activity of the organizations until there is clarity of fact and a legal resolution giving relief to all the millions who are potentially harmed by this fraud and intentionally reckless governance of the entire ABMS.
What's more the ABMS and the medical specialty boards have been fully informed of all this and more involving the racketeering they have all ben engaged in for years. This has all been presented to them by their legal counsel working for Dr. Nora's offices. It has been presented to the other member boards through their leadership and legal teams to consider and respond to.
What will they do?
ABIM and the AMA's early opposition to "socialized medicine"
Dr. Ernest Irons, was one of the nine founding members of the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1936. Dr. Irons served as president of the American Medical Association from 1949-1950. The AMA spent several million dollars fighting against Harry Truman's campaign to create a nationalized healthcare system.
In February of 1950 the President of the AMA, discoverer of sickle-cell anemia with James Herrick, wrote a stern warning about "socialized" medicine in America.
“The nationalization of medicine as a part of the attempt to socialize this country has been adopted as a political measure by certain politicians. Federal aid to education, including medical education, is one of these parts of the welfare program.
“New money is attractive to schools that find themselves in financial difficulties. More prosperous schools are willing to be included. Proffers of easy administration are as dangerous to freedom of thought and action in medical education as are offers of easy living. Every subsidy carries with it the threat of regulation, despite any disclaimer of previous intent.
“We in America are at the point now where prohibition is being replaced by compulsion. The democracy of our republic is threatened by the steady encroachment of socialistic, bureaucratic government. What began as an apparently innocent effort for comfort and happiness is becoming a destructive instrument of dictatorship." (2/6/1950)
- Dr. Ernest Irons, MD, AMA president 1949-1950 and founding member of the American Board of Internal Medicine, 1936.
Great informative article as always, sir. Thank you!
Is the FBI a compromised federal investigative bureau incapable of unbiased investigations and recommendations in certain cases?
FBI whistle blower Sibel Edmonds, who Senator Chuck Grassley said was a very credible witness, has a very interesting story to tell about the FBI and the DOJ on her website "Boiling Frogs."
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2015/09/20/dennis-hastert-case-clinton-scandals-fbi-the-1996-cointelpro-directive/
A Future Headline may Read:
"Risk taking along with political and financial fraud at the ABIM and ABMS will collapse the 80+ year-old non-profit scientific corporations. Clients are asking for their money back citing decades of overbilling and there is absolutely no science to back up the enterprise. By-laws clearly state the ABMS/ABIM is a scientific non-profit enterprise."
Have ABIM executives been running their scientific testing corporation into the ground with fiscally irresponsible decisions and very risky "investments" including unregulated highly unusual over the counter "derivative" exposure.
The answer is yes when we look at their total budget, revenue stream, expenditures, liabilities coupled with their almost limitless exposure to risk. The liabilities are in fact limitless to the downside, considering the probability of total failure; and the organization faces total collapse as a result of their negligence.
Will ABIM's financial collapse bring the rest of the ABMS down with it?
In terms of shared liability the answer to the latter question is yes, absolutely.
The ABMS and members in having virtually no accountability have been jointly taking on risky projects and liability in conjunction with ABIM governance and it backfired on them. The whole house of cards is ready to collapse. The spokes of the umbrella are popping out under the heavy strain already--and nobody is talking about it. The artificial barriers to keeping the "individual cards" from being blown away immediately are corporate, political and judicial connections.
And when these small "obstructions to justice" and "buffers to financial transparency" requirements turn their backs on the overly exposed individual executives they are promoting/protecting, then the ABMS and ABIM's corruption will come out in the main stream media making the three little pigs story look tame.
The ABIM house of bricks is really a house of sticks soon to be a domicile of straw.
Next stop for the execs: sanctions, fines and possibly the protective concrete walls of a penitentiary.
For investor/clients in the ABIM and ABMS who are unfamiliar with risky investments and derivatives Deutche Bank makes a good example with over 70 trillion in derivative exposure. Comparisons are for analogy only.
The actual financial facts are not registered with the IRS on their tax filings, so only the internal managers of the ABIM/ABMS finances (and hopefully their insurance companies) are the only ones aware of the unlimited downside and inevitable collapse of the ABIM and the ABMS umbrella. Most of the political elites involved in healthcare reform have already taken the bulk of the cash and left the patsies in charge to take the blame.
Deutche Bank warnings about their level of exposure to financial risk.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-03/it-time-panic-about-deutsche-bank
This article on derivatives does not list the risky forms of "derivatives" which the ABIM and ABMS have been investing in.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/derivative.asp
Wall Street-style reassurances that gross exposure to liability is not the same thing as net exposure to liability. Either way the ABMS cannot meet their current financial obligations and present liabilities operating on soon-to-evaporate future revenues and the wispy promise of revenues derived from borrowed money.
This fractured form of wishful financial thinking and fraudulent reckoning with IRS tax filings is based on fractional economics and banking theory. The risky practice and puffed-up economics and scientific propaganda to obscure reality will soon bring the ABMS financial empire into a quick collapse.
http://realmoney.thestreet.com/articles/05/26/2016/deutsche-bank-scares-you-omg-you-must-read
FBI Director James Comey's Former Boss Rudy Giuliani* Speaks Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD6Ykxlvddk
*Mayor Giuliani went after ABIM's investment firm Drexel, Burnham, Lambert for fraud and racketeering. He considers himself a "reasonable prosecutor" and says that the evidence against Hillary Clinton was suffient to bring charges against her.
He uses the phrase "no brainer" for at least one indictment.
Can we get a law passed to require ABIM and ABIM Foundation executives, board members, auditors, and lawyers to wear body cameras w/audio? The sheer number of violations and harms done to physicians and the public is getting out of control?
Ditto for the ABMS and associate organizations. I never thought I would encounter such rampant corruption and blatant bullying in the medical bureaucracy.
I am not being humorous at all. Baron and Nora are creating one hell of a karma for themselves and everyone else in their corrosive network of greedy political clowns.
We live in a free democracy!
Charles Kroll has some mind jolting statistics on the ABIM.
I just noticed that he posted the 2014 compensation from the ACGME. It seems like we have another "million dollar club" CEO at #ACGME 2014 Form 990 http://goo.gl/2Xcm5i
▶ Total Revenue $56.4 Million
▶ CEO Compensation $1,061,540 #MOC #MedEd
Also note in the revolving door scheme Kevin Weiss gets 611K after moving over from the CEO position at the ABMS replaced by Lois Nora. Why do they move around? That is a question we should put to Wes or the DOJ or Mr. Kroll. I think it is to avoid prosecution from the dirty business they execute while on the job.
https://twitter.com/charlespkroll?lang=en
Mr. Kroll has a grass roots site for making donations. His services to physicians are invaluable. We would not be anywhere in the struggle to understand and fight for CME and civil rights without him! I donate. We need to support this gentlemen and thank him for providing his expertise in accounting and watchdogging of excesses in the non-profit arena. Look at the AMA delegate resolution and the PA Medical Society's resolve to take on the giant medical bureaucracy. Not a small task. Turn that 10K into a 100K goal. It's doable.
https://www.gofundme.com/forensic-accounting
No copyright--as it should be in all humanitarian movements to end injustice and corruption. Spread the word. Copy/paste this public record.
The data base is slowly being saturated with the truth about these "worms" who bury themselves in the sand.
Hi all. I suggest we organize a March/doctors day off day. What is lacking here is mass publicity. Several tens of thousands of doctors marching on a public place or taking the day off on the same day could end this. If you would like to join me, please email endmocnow@outlook.com and once we get a quorum we could try, via social media, to recruit a critical mass.
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