Dear Colleague,
Several states now have anti-MOC legislation pending. Recently the Georgia legislature passed HB 165, similar to Oklahoma's SB 1148 which prohibits Maintenance of Certification (MOC) as a condition of licensure or reimbursement from third parties. However, the ABMS and its member boards have been heavily lobbying state legislators to defeat the pending bills in other states (click here to view ABMS lobbying materials). Those of us opposed to MOC must educate legislators in these states regarding how MOC requirements are onerous, expensive, have no proven benefit, and are forced on physicians by conflicted, self-appointed private ABMS member boards.
Here is how you can make a huge difference:
Thank you for your help and support.
- This is going to take you a few minutes. I spend hundreds of uncompensated hours per year on this issue. Please take 5 minutes of your time to help yourself and our profession.
- This is your action item:
Click here to effortlessly send a letter by email to your district's state representatives. You will be asked to "register" by entering in your name, email and address. That's it. From your address the system will pull your specific state bill and a letter tailored for your specific state representatives you can edit (if desired) and click to send to all your district's legislators. We have made it as easy as possible for you.
- There are currently many states with strong anti-MOC legislation pending. If your state currently has no anti-MOC legislation pending, your letter will encourage your representatives to create anti-MOC legislation.
- If you are curious and want to view all the sample letters we have written by state, click here.
- Please spread the word. We have 18,000 email addresses of physician supporters but we need many more. This will not work without your help getting this message out. Forward this email to your colleagues, your patients, your med staff office for hospital wide distribution, your specialty organizations, your FB, Twitter, Linked In and other social media friends. (You can also refer them to the NBPAS Advocacy Webpage).
- To join the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS.org) and obtain continuous certification based primarily on AACME accredited CME, click here.
Respectfully,
Paul Teirstein M.D.
President
National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS)
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Teirstein: An Urgent Call to Action
This important email has been widely circulated today from Paul Teirstein, MD, President of the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) and is an urgent call to action for practicing physicians. I urge all physicians to take a brief moment and contact your representative as Dr. Teirstein suggests. He's made the process as easy as possible:
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25 comments:
The ABMS is literally stealing from physicians - stealing time and stealing money.
ABIM is comprised of a cadre of professional liars with a lust for money and knack for serving up disinformation to the public. How the quality certification cartel and their corporate stakeholders could create an assemblage of so many two-bit cheaters in one place is what astounds me. Even pulling felons out of a rabbits hat - one of the biggest tricks of the them all.
The Transformation of the ABMS
The ABIM was harmless in the beginning. But now it is not. In fact, the ABIM and entire ABMS version 2.0 has become no less than a terror to physicians and the United States healthcare system. It has become a bad violent video game. One that we cannot turn off.
The medical boards and ABMS umbrella organization in Chicago have their tentacles in the quality assurance industry and vice versa. The corruption and the extent of it has been exposed over and over, but the ABMS buries its head and says nothing. The AMA HOD resolves to end mandatory MOC, and the AMA head turns his head the other way pretending not to see.
The ABMS cartel and their associates have been working against physicians slowly putting the chains and noose around us for decades. Now we learn because of a nasty deal secretly cut between the NCQA, medical boards, various quality forums, largest medical societies and their major stakeholders (the insurers and hospitals) physicians were sold out by their "partners". The ABMS is now the MATRIX.
As a result of this despicable collusion, physicians cannot work or get remunerated without paying the MOC tax. Physicians cannot get a job or keep one if they do not do ABMS MOC/MOCA busywork. They cannot serve patients unless they partake in ABMS' onerous and useless proprietary (or an affiliates') data-dumps, modules, practitioner intrusions, and knowledge-updates.
And physicians are not allowed to work at their profession unless they keep traveling for the rest of their lives to Pearson Vue testing centers. Or the latest proposal of having their homes and offices invaded (as an unvetted option) by third party proctors and testing spy companies. Who are these people who will be watching us on camera and taking our data into their protective custody? Just another identity thief?
Or perhaps another unvetted felon will break down the door of our personal homes ravaging our civil liberties. Some felon they keep secret from everyone that the ABMS picks up and props up - maybe a tough bouncer they read about in the news. A double felon they could use, one without scruples or respect for civil liberties. A man who has had more than his share of using his punishing fists and stick putting pain and angry blood on the streets.
With such actual clandestine actors chosen by the ABIM/ABMS in the past to do their dirty work, physicians are not free of harassment and abuse again. Doctors are not assured that they will not end up with a civil or criminal prosecution when they click the infamous ABMS take-it-or-leave-it pledge of honesty.
This dishonest digital ABMS contract (subject of change at any time) holds each physician who tests at the whim of malicious CEOs, COOs, or felonious investigators with their teams of crooked lawyers. Any or all of them may have their own personal problems and difficulties regulating and policing their own criminally reckless and deceitful professional lives. Why do they choose to harm another person's life? Profit and power?
What gives these racketeers the right to make a market out of each of us and our profession? We are not hogs to be sold off and slaughtered in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange! The callous herding of physicians' professional and personal lives is over.
The hypocrisy of the quality certification cartel has no bounds and the corruption is beyond measure. The house of medicine is burning and we must all heed the call to act.
Before "Continuous MOC" Was Introduced Bob Wacther Claims To Have Taken a Ten-Year Re-certification Exam "about five years ago".
But Pearson Vue has no record of Bob Wachter's test being taken at any of their centers and affiliates. Why? Did he really take the test "about five years ago"? (2015 blog)
And why hasn't the father of the hospitalist movement taken the ABIM Hospitalist Exam?
The elites want us to do what they would not do unless they "worked for the ABMS." And as we know with Bob Wachter he serves corporate special interests with handsome financial rewards.
"Although I was “a grandfather” myself, when I joined the Board I was required to complete MOC (all Board members must do this, grandfathered or not), and I did so about five years ago. I thought the test (I took the general internal medicine exam; this was before a hospitalist-specific test was available) was reasonable and that studying for it improved my skills. The self-education modules, mostly open-book tests, were also useful, even fun. On the other hand, the parts of the process that required that I measure my own practice were unwieldy, and the tools made available to support this work were relatively user-unfriendly. My colleagues and I on the Board pushed the staff to improve these tools, and over time they did, although they remained well behind the kinds of sophisticated web-based tools we’ve become accustomed to in our non-medical lives."
http://www.abim.org/verify-physician/Wachter-Robert-B7Dc7NbDQH8=.aspx
Physicians and patients react to ABMS PR announcements regarding their "new MOC products" with skepticism bordering on cynicism.
Wonder why?
Here's a little ABIM history that everyone who has not heard about yet should know and understand.
Christine "Kat-Woman" Cassel and Rich "the Joker" Baron, with the use of corporate spies from Caveon (their chief investigator a goon-felon-thug and pathological liar) utilized powerful legal muscle with ties to big corporate money and government officials to put Dr. R K Arora's ACCME-accredited ABR board prep courses out of business.
They did so by trammeling Dr. Arora's civil liberties, demonizing him in the press and personally threatening him and his family. The legal suit against him was hastily put together and its chief witness was a felon with sordid past and and from looking at his CV he is obviously a pathological liar. How the ABIM got a sealed ex-parte writ is a mystery and should be investigated as it goes to the core of the case shedding light on the ABMS cartel's corruption and obvious influence peddling using their deep connections.
In a muliti-pronged violatory attack, the ABMS cartel warned, bullied and persecuted ABMS candidates and diplomates. With dramatic flare and carnage, the sent a clear chilling message that physicians should not go to competing board preparation courses. They claimed copyright infringement but all the cases were thrown out, except for one case against a women with ten children. Crucial facts known to the ABIM and their attorneys were not shared with the court and opposing attorneys as they should have. The egregious work and criminal history, plus the glaring lies and concealment on the CV of their main witness would have been enough for any judge to balk at giving out an ex-parte writ. With such a felon in charge of evidence (ABIM had sole custody of the evidence seized from Dr. Arora's home) the court made a grave error in judgment, because of ABIM's conscious concealment of this and exculpatory evidence hidden from the courts and attorneys. The ABIM would not make this body of evidence available to the defense and mishandled the evidence.
They simultaneously tried the same copyright attacks using Ballard Spahr against the respected B Mittman's FrontRunner's course materials also, thus scaring business away.
ACP takes over Dr. Arora's market niche ( and the other independents were intimidated, folded or barred entry to the market)
The largest ABMS medical board was politically emasculated. Physicians were coerced into arrangements with the ABIM and forced against their will to bow to inordinate pressures from a deranged out-of-touch inquisitional tribunal on an illegal witch hunt and fishing expedition (John and Jane Does 50). Any child could see what ABIM's executives, spies, lawyers and panels did was wrong on every level. In fact they went after countless thousands in violation of their constitutional guarantees. Not to mention the invasion of privacy.
ACP, an ABIM/ABMS partner, as a result won lucrative markets through the hostile corporate destruction of its competitors forcing clients into an unfair market monopolized by the ABMS and associates.
Now the American College of Physicians, the parent organization of the ABIM, with its MKSAP and board prep courses for certification and MOC has filled the void moving into Dr. Arora's niche markets - markets he developed for twenty years successfully without anything but praise from program directors and the ACGME.
https://www.acponline.org/meetings-courses/acp-courses-recordings?gclid=CKmNz4LVstMCFQ-2wAod7bIE8g&jcpid=8a8ae4cd4c0108e4014c2626afb8452f&jsf=51c5737c-8c0d-43d4-9200-4451d084e010:33443
The ABIM is not a regulatory body to be sanctioning folks, it is a testing company. That's all. How did the ABIM and ABMS get so much power? Why are physicians afraid of a non-profit business that claims to not lobby congress or take money from the healthcare industry. They serve the large payers and hospitals. The ABIM even hired a chief of staff with direct ties to a big pharma company based in the UK.
The ABIM is obviously involved in lying and cover-up. The recent malicious attack on Dr. Jaime Salas-Rushford of San Juan, Puerto Rico opened up a window into the Pandora's box of evil radiating from within the ABIM and ABMS. Physicians should imo lawyer-up and go after the ABIM and ABMS for defrauding them and withholding exculpatory evidence from attorneys and the court.
Expose their corruption down to the bone in seeking personal compensation for the ills they have done. And the chill they have put on all our civil liberties.
Did the ABIM and ABMS cheat physicians and defraud the public? Absolutely.
What is the ACPE?
The ACPE is now operating under a new name, which if perhaps a deflection to conceal its true base and power structure. It is now operating as the American Association for Physician Leadership. Tax forms, however are filed under it longstanding name for 37 years the American College of Physician Executives.
"The American Association for Physician Leadership is an educational organization focused on physicians who hold leadership and management positions. Its central offices are located in Tampa, Florida. Peter B. Angood is the chief executive officer of the 11,000-member organization.
History
The organization was founded in 1975 as the American Academy of Medical Directors (AAMD) in Alexandria, Virginia. For most of this time, the primary focus of the association's activities has been encouraging physicians to assume more active roles in the leadership and management of organizations in the health care industry and helping physicians acquire leadership and management skills. In 1982, AAMD moved its headquarters to Tampa. In 1980, the name was changed to the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) to more accurately reflect the nature and direction of its growing membership. In 2014, after more than a year of preparation including member surveys and workshops, the organization rebranded and became the American Association for Physician Leadership. By broadening the scope of programs, products and services, the association strives to more fully support the physician workforce across the entire career span, from medical students to those in later career stages. This also includes physicians in clinical roles, nonclinical administrative roles and those on nontraditional physician career paths."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_Physician_Leadership
Another ABMS associate partner delivering dramatic year over year revenue growth (and growing executive compensation)
ACPE online courses and degrees: (ACP partner now operating under the name
"American Academy for Physician Executives AAPE":)
https://shop.physicianleaders.org/collections/online-courses
ACPE rebrands: ACPE changes name to reflect shifting healthcare realities (2014) http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140922/NEWS/309199947
Former NCQA board member, Peter Angood, chosen to head the ACPE Oct. 2011
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dr-peter-angood-chosen-to-lead-american-college-of-physician-executives-131041943.html
"Angood, an ACPE member since 2001, brings to the College a distinguished record of service in the field of patient safety. In addition to his role as president and CEO of the consulting firm PBA Solutions Insight, Angood also served as chief medical officer for the GE Healthcare Patient Safety Organization (PSO). He recently completed a two-year engagement with the National Quality Forum and National Priorities Partnership as senior advisor for patient safety.
Before becoming a consultant, Angood was chief patient safety officer and vice-president for The Joint Commission, where he oversaw annual development of the National Patient Safety Goals and other patient safety initiatives. Angood also worked with the World Health Organization Patient Safety initiative and helped lead development of the WHO Collaborating Center for Patient Safety Solutions."
Angood ABMS Surgeon (non-MOC participant)
Surgery, certified not participating in MOC; Surgery, critical care not certified
file:///C:/Users/annam45/Downloads/surg_cert_status044883_20170420141410.pdf
ACPE 990 CEO 35 hour work week, plus 5 for the board. Huge CEO compensation package for a non-profit, plus deferred compensation to "unnamed party".
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2015/541/032/2015-541032555-0cef7b7d-9.pdf
This monster really does have so many heads. It just keeps growing them.
Even if you went through all the required labors in time to find the magic egg with the fabulous needle inside . . . and managed to crack the shell . . .
Where would you stick the potent point to be successful in slaying MOC?
It's not just MOC; each ugly head before me pivots from a monster of greed and control.
Former NCQA board member Angood should read NQF, but to be on one is to literally be on the other, so one could write ABMS board, BCBS, or JC and it would still essentially be the same.
"American Academy for Physician Executives AAPE": this is what ACPE should be called, because it fits the reality more.
The beginning of the end for the ABMS
The founding father of the modern era ABMS quality assurance cartel was the ABIM's 1965 Chairman, Dr. Thomas Brem. Dr. Brem was a socialist and power-seeking man that had his controlling hands on the ABMS, ABIM, Veterans Administration, and California State Hospitals. Brem sold out the American public and physicians for money and power when he stumped for big tobacco as an expert witness testifying under oath before the house committee on interstate commerce.
Brem, by cleverly contradicting the US Surgeon General's definitive 1964 report that linked tobacco products to cancer and heart disease, caused irreparable harm to patients and betrayed the physicians who served them.
"The 1964 landmark report, released by Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry, was the first federal government report linking smoking and ill health, including lung cancer and heart disease. This scientifically rigorous report laid the foundation for tobacco control efforts in the United States."
From 1965 on marks the beginning of ABIM-ABMS corruption. Brem destroyed term limits and non-profit status with the introduction of an independent physician executive into the ABIM and ABMS organizations. All with the simple stroke of a pen and changing the bylaws. These nonpracticing physician executives were enticed by political rank and offered an easier office job. They were lured by the possibility of making more money than their clinical counterparts.
Looking at the linage of the physician executive at the ABIM, from Brem to Benson, Kimball to Cassel and now Baron, all executives have served corporate special interests and most have had had revolving door positions with the government. Most of the quality assurance NGOs and forums that have been newly created within the past few decades have grown cozy with corporate stakeholders.
The ABMS cartel serves a cabal of labor, hospitals, payers, and investors. Professional medical politicians like Eric Holmboe, Chris Cassel, Bob Wachter, Lois Nora, and Rich Baron have assisted in developing seamless profit-seeking models and cost saving campaigns through their lobbying power and revolving door government and quasi-government positions at the CMS, AHRQ, NQF, PCAST and so on.
It is clear with the creation of MOC, which is an industry-supported mandate and unfounded educational tax on physicians, that the ABMS certification cartel is no longer true to the ABIM motto "of the profession for the public".
The ABMS and their corporate cronies obviously betrayed physicians and left patients out on a limb. It is necessary to have statutory relief from MOC via state and federal legislation.
MOC is an illegal tax and burdensome yoke on the neck and back hard working physicians already overtaxed and overburdened in service to growing and aging patient population. The continuation of mandatory MOC is intolerable.
MOC is a dead weight on the healthcare system that nobody can afford to maintain or support.
ABIM and ABMS stumping for "big tobacco" (MOC is the new lie the ABMS defends for profit and power)
The speculative testimony concerning lung cancer and tobacco delivered under oath in 1969 by Thomas Brem, MD, is perhaps more of a study on the nature of lying, subterfuge and corporate corruption. It is a study of corporate propaganda and disinformation, while sitting on the studies delineating truth that stares out on the world plain as day today.
Brem's testimony is more about how to precariously serve up lies to our legislators than anything to do with medical science. The medical science clearly linked cigarette use and consumption to "cancer of the lung" and "heart disease" at the time.
Every legislator in America should read Thomas Brem's testimony. It is classic. Dr. Brem quotes and referenced only two books (outdated) both written by the same author. He mentions a couple of pages from the Surgeon General's landmark tobacco report, one page of which mentions youth and cigarette smoking and the difficulty of getting a true picture of the extent of the effects on the US population. Brem cherry picks a page and ignores the clear scientific linkage to cancer in the expensive study.
Brem skates around truth with improbable words presented in such a way as to cast doubt. An out of context passage quoted from "page 175" - a report very few legislators actually read themselves is classic subterfuge and the technique is still used today. Probably even by insurance companies lobbying behind closed doors in defending their onerous MOC mandates with the state legislators quoting ABMS propaganda, false data presented as fact, and pure sales pitches.
Dr. Brem even admits as part of the tobacco use ruse, that with the passage of the Social Securities Act of 1965, there will be a statistical increase "for a few years" in the rate of lung cancer in America, but it will be due only to elderly populations who were previously uninsured now being counted in the studies as they can now go to doctors. Was Brem buying time for the tobacco industry to adjust to reality? What about the same legislators who had to decide on tobacco subsidies for growers? He obviously knew the truth, but suppressed the fact that cigarette usage/addiction had scientifically been proven to cause lung cancer. Brem started his carreer in pathology, so he knew the drill. Brem's testimony is an example of corporate power and money beating up on the integrity of science and welfare of people.
Brem started the snowball of corruption and corporate bullying rolling at the ABIM and ABMS. Now we live within an even more complex system of NGOs granted non-profit status by our IRS. They are weaving lies and half-truths and presenting them to the public in behalf of corporations, especially to support of the corporate bottom lines. Whether an ABMS, NCQA or NQF executive (or whatever certification NGO or quality forum you choose) serves a tobacco company, a payer, hospital with its own insurance products, labor union with duplicitous leadership, pharmaceutical giant seeking inroads to congress, or the bankers, investment funds and underwriters of huge financial firms, lying is still lying and fraud is still fraud.
Fraud and racketeering must be investigated and prosecuted. Not rewarded.
https://cfrankdavis.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/thomas-brem-statement.pdf
MOC is an invented sales ploy created in the decades of saturated certification markets and the era of unattractive expensive membership societies of the 1970's and 80's. Any argument for mandatory MOC other than this is a fake pitch, a wild curve-ball, thrown at the public and legislators in the false tradition of Thomas Brem.
ABMS MOC is a "means of control" supported by their illegitimate "maintenance of cash".
MOC is the "mother of corruption".
MOC serves not the public or physician; MOC serves the "mandates of corporations".
ABMS MOC is clearly a "malfeasant onerous certification" scam.
ABMS MOC Exposed: fraudulent recertification testing scams based on Ponzi schemes and pay-to-play
As the ABIM Foundation Choosing Wisely campaign was ramping-up urging physicians and patients to have "discussions" about curbing unnecessary, expensive and invasive testing, the ABIM and ABMS were ramping-up their latest versions of unvetted MOC products and onerous recertification requirements -- thus shoving unnecessary, expensive, and invasive testing on physicians.
It did not go unnoticed that the powerful medical membership societies associated with the ABMS member boards were lobbying congress in behalf of the interests of large insurers and hospitals. Perhaps more troubling than this the fact that ABMS member boards themselves lobbied congress and did not report it to the public or the IRS.
A gold rush of new MOC products and services ensued disseminated by the medical boards and their corresponding member societies. Or at home/in office/Pearson Vue two-year MOC testing was "definitively announced" or in development with some pilot programs offered in 2018. But they won't count? You can take them again? How much does it cost? Excuse me, does the ABIM and ABMS think that the mostly highly educated and continuously educated profession in the world are stupid enough to accept such a bogus "fly-by-the-thigh" MOC plan!
Unsettling are the ABIM Foundation's continuous transfers of money in the form of block grants and other money to the ACP for promotion of professionalism and to develop associated quality measurement programs. The ACP states the ABIM is an independent body and does not have influence over it.
Yet, curiously, at the same time in an almost manic announcement/pledge the ACP assures its member it is working hard to encourage the ABIM to make MOC less burdensome and more relevant. (Are they worried about mass exodus? They should be.) It is uncanny how quickly and seamlessly the ACP educational materials are now "tooled-and-died" to put out pre-fabricated MOC products that meet ABMS MOC requirements.
Nothing reveals a "hypocritical political position" and worth of a physician membership society more patently than the low quality of moral integrity and verbose side-stepping as they become one-stop merchants of MOC, even aiding and abetting to destroy competition in markets, while professing "neutrality" on the MOC debate.
The AMA is another such membership society, whose inner core, pretends to listen, and does the opposite. Lobbying for insurance companies and other private and publicly-traded healthcare entities along with their ABMS associate members.
What we have today in medicine is the exponential growth of an elite class of physician executive politicians with skyrocketing compensation and golden parachutes who are helping to put the squeeze on patient care from all angles.
They represent corporate interests that push for mandates and measures which sorely burden working class physicians. In the trench physicians who see their pay getting cut by the "quality-versus-value-play" of corrupt payers, merged hospitals, and compromised labor organizations all being locked in by the ABMS pay-to-play.
Lobby, sue, get statutory relief, or run for public office, but do not pay into this corrupt Ponzi scheme. The only difference between Bernie Madoff and these elites and their corporate masters is that someone finally listened after years of complaints to the SEC, IRS, and DOJ, who got them to actually freeze their accounts and put the criminals responsible in jail.
Look at the ABIM (and the labyrinth of not-for-profit NGOs that control the healthcare industry in behalf of corporate special interests) with their greater than 15% year-over-year growth in service fees and the handsome steady returns for executives. The client/investor gets nothing in return except frustration, heartache and an annual bill. It is gut wrenching, because they are still learning ABMS MOC has all been a fraudulent testing Ponzi scheme.
I was going to sign up for MOC until I read this little paragraph....
I agree to indemnify, release, and hold harmless ABIM, its employees, officers, directors, members, agents, and those furnishing information about me to ABIM from any claims, liability, or damage by reason of any of their acts or omissions, done in good faith, in connection with: this application; information furnished to or by ABIM; the evaluation of my qualifications; ABIM examinations; the enforcement of ABIM's Policies and Procedures for Certification, and the policies for recertification outlined on ABIM's website, as well as all terms, conditions, and rules set forth in this website, as they may be amended from time to time; and any other action taken with respect to any certification or recertification granted by ABIM
The ABIM's criminal take-it-or-leave-it policies open candidates and diplomates up to
"criminal as well as civil liability, and may also result in ABIM's imposition of penalties against them, including but not limited to, invalidation of examination results, exclusion from future examinations, suspension or revocation of Board Certification and other sanctions."
In a recent opinion piece written by ABIM's infamous (yet still undisclosed) "director of investigations" Ariel Benjamin Mannes states that physicians need more oversight and regulation. Is Mannes feigning now to be an expert about healthcare regulation and not just an armchair counter-terrorism SME?
At the same time Mr. Mannes postulates in another article for "the Hill" a decrease in regulation for police relating to illegal search and seizure of certain individuals or groups. People should not forget this ex-cop Mannes violated federal laws. He was charged with three felonies and was convicted of two of the three felonies. He was terminated from his brief tenure as a TSA employee and as bouncer for a night club resulting from his crimes. Also, it is worth mentioning that Mannes' boss who owned the night club that employed him was indicted, convicted and imprisoned for egregious acts of tax evasion against the District of Columbia in concealing millions of dollars from his official books. "Birds of a feather flock together."
Prior to committing his felonies, Mannes was thrown off the DC Metro police for violating the constitutional rights of a reporter. The reporter was assigned to write about corruption in the DC metro police. Mannes not only violated the journalists first amendment rights through acts of intimidation, but he used official-use-only police record systems to invade the reporters privacy and conduct/encourage personal attacks of vengeance against him. (Do physicians get the picture yet of who and what the ABIM really is? And what they have done to illegally attack and coerce physicians. It is a corporation engaged in bullying and fraud.)
It is absolutely outrageous that Mannes is in print at all due to the level of physician and journalist abuse, intimidation and lies he represents. But this is part of the way the ABMS and ABIM operate. They create the image of respectability and professionalism while they intimidate their clients or threaten their livelihoods.
The ABIM employed Mannes consciously as an expendable weapon to unleash this "felonious civil rights monster" against physicians and competing board prep courses. They unleashed Mannes to spy on companies, candidates and dipolomates. Then the ABIM, ABMS and their dirt attorneys sicced this ex-cop (who has lied on his CV) to illegally search and seize files pertaining to thousands of physicians without their knowledge or permission.
And yet, still their is no justice for the countless victims of the ABIM and ABMS. No punishment with jail time or fines given out in judgement against those who aided and abetted in transforming the medical boards into a police state designed to protect this "colluding franchise of criminal enterprises".
So heinous has the ABIM and ABMS become with their constitutional abuses, privacy invasions and MOC scams, physicians need to sue the ABIM and their ABMS partners for every dollar they can win in a settlement. The ABIM ranks with some of the most notorious criminal enterprises in American history when you look at how they have cheated physicians, patients and the taxpayer with their malicious fake MOC schemes.
They have also willfully lied to the IRS about their political activities, lobbying and that "big piggy bank", the ABIM Foundation, with its history of felonious activities.
There is nothing professional about the ABIM or the ABIM Foundation. And there is certainly nothing expert about the ABMS' felonious infamous thug who takes time to mention, while bemoaning that physicians are not regulated enough, that the medical boards have no more investigators like himself in their employ.
As an author of "expert opinion", or as ABIM's "director of investigations", Ariel "Benjamin" Mannes seems to have never done the manly thing of disclosing his conflicts of interest, civil violations against the public and press as a cop; nor has he given full disclosure of his felonious background to the courts in presenting any of his "so-called" evidence.
This places the ABIM, ABMS, and their insurers/underwriters in a very precarious situation.
That is why Dr. Baron and his army of attorneys has kept their secret weapon and its unofficial use and firing in complete "lock-down". I am referring to the actual crimes they committed and the pertinent facts related to their cover-up. The wall of lies is thick.
ABIM could simplify the above as follows: "ABIM is not responsible for any damage we may cause, but we retain the right to stick it to Diplomates and Candidates, for any reason, or without a reason, any time we please." How much did Ballard Spahr bill the Diplomates for the above legal pearls?
There's little doubt as to why ABIM is racing toward insolvency.
I just thought everyone would like to know -
This just in from the Texas State Senate:
Maintenance of Certification: The Texas Senate yesterday unanimously approved a bill that would prohibit hospitals and health insurance companies from discriminating against physicians based solely on their maintenance of certification (MOC) status. Senate Bill 1148 by Sen. Dawn Buckingham, MD (R-Lakeway), is a TMA priority. It also would prohibit the Texas Medical Board from requiring MOC for physicians to obtain or renew a medical license. Specifically, the bill states, “A physician is considered a board-certified medical specialist in this state if the physician receives initial certification, regardless of the physician’s maintenance of certification.” Houston neurologist Kim Monday, MD, testified for TMA in support of the bill in committee earlier this month. “We are asking that you give physicians a choice in whether they continue to participate in this expensive and somewhat monopolistic endeavor,” she said. It now moves to the House, where a similar bill has been filed by Rep. Greg Bonnen, MD (R-Friendswood).
Wes -
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your courageous efforts in this arena -
You are truly inspiring.
"You will know the truth - and the truth will set you free"
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