As you may know, The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has announced plans to offer new options for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) assessment beginning in January 2018. ABIM’s current 10-year exam will remain available as an assessment option for those seeking to maintain one or more Board certifications. In addition to the two MOC options offered directly, the ABIM has committed to working with three medical specialty societies – the ACC, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) – to explore development of additional collaborative maintenance pathways (CMPs) through which physicians can maintain board certification. The goal of this effort is to offer board certified physicians additional flexibility in how they can demonstrate to their peers and the public that they meet standards and are keeping their medical knowledge current.This is not about "quality" health care. This is not for "patient safety." This is about one simple thing: the money.
The ACC has proposed an MOC option for cardiovascular medicine that uses enhanced versions of its Self-Assessment Program (SAP) collection (with a formal knowledge assessment function built into the products) as an alternative to taking the ABIM 10-year examination or the 2-year Knowledge Check-In series. The enhanced SAP collection would comprise ACCSAP (general cardiology), CathSAP (interventional cardiology), EP SAP (electrophysiology), Heart Failure SAP (heart failure) and ACHD SAP (adult congenital heart disease). Developing this comprehensive collection of enhanced SAPs that covers all cardiovascular topics with ABIM board certification exams supports the tacit position that the College is the professional home of all cardiovascular specialists.
Dr. Patrick O’Gara has accepted the invitation to serve as the Self-Assessment Program Editor-in-Chief for the SAP Collection. Dr. Joe Marine and Dr. Ken Ellenbogen have accepted the invitation to serve as Co-Editors of EP SAP and Dr. Edward Gerstenfeld as your Topic Editor. On behalf of Drs. O’Gara, Marine, Ellenbogen, Gerstenfeld and the ACC, we are pleased to extend an invitation to be an author on the topic of Pathophysiology in the chapter entitled Clinical Arrhythmias: Atrial and sub-topic Atrial Fibrillation in ACC’s newest offering in line with the EP SAP product. Please review the attached letter and position description. We look forward to your response by Monday, March 26, 2018.
Regards,
Liara
Liara Fredericks-Brown
Digital Content Specialist
American College of Cardiology
It is also about manipulating their colleagues with rent-seeking for their own political avarice and greed.
-Wes
American College of Cardiology's Largess on an Iternational Scale
ReplyDelete2015 IRS 990 American College of Cardiology Schedule J page 3 Supplemental Information:
"First class travel permitted for international travel to the Presidential Team."
ACC 2017 International Team Travel: Shanghai, Dubai, Mexico City
"ACC Latin America Regional Conference
Mexico City, Mexico
June 22 – 24, 2017
ACC Middle East Regional Conference
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Oct. 19 – 21, 2017
ACC Asia Pacific Regional Conference
Shanghai, China
Dec. 1 – 3, 2017"
“The ACC’s international mission is to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease worldwide. In order to achieve that mission, we need to reach people in the regions where they live and practice,” said Richard A. Chazal, MD, FACC, ACC president. “Embodying that mission is the primary purpose of the regional conference program, and we are honored to learn from our partners around the world who make these meetings a success.”
What is the primary purpose? Money, power, and pleasure! I find it appaling that physicians have no advocacy left from any of the membership societies, yet they continue to agree to pay for such largess on an international scale.
Why do you have to go to the back pages of the IRS tax forms to find out the obscene compensatory packages of these little banana republic dicatators in league with the ABMS, ACGME, JC, AHA and their international divisions. There really needs to be an DOJ investigation of all these collusive organizations. They are consolidating power through the use of the purse. It is sickening to see. Very unhealthy. The politics of money.
Who and what do they advocate for at the ACC PAC? What is going on behind the scenes really? Physicians and patients have gotten the short end of the stick. Why is that? There appears to be no advocacy left whatsoever for patients and physicians. Is this some bizarre shell game where you cannot believe what you see and hear. It appears so. The deception really hurts and these quality assurance cartels and membership societies are raking in millions (even billions) of dollars to screw the public and profession with a lot of hot air.
ReplyDeleteWhy do many of the ACC executives appear to draw two large salaries from the "college". Is it the same ABIM model where they set up a Foundation to pad their salaries and hide the profits. Look at how much money the ACC Foundation pays (owes) to the ACC every year. Millions and millions of dollars paying for what! What kind of scam is this? We see it repeated over and over in these so-called non-profit charities. Where is the IRS and DOJ to check on these collusive corporations with tons of gold stashed away and coi up the whazoo.
It is clear what their "gold standard" certifications and maintenance racket is all about when you see the offshoring of wealth and the tidy way they do their tax returns to obfuscate it all and have the same board members sign off on the robbery every year with a statement of "industry standard" to justify the outrageous payouts.
The ACC tax forms speak for themselves about how out of hand it has all gotten. The greed and political avarice is incredible. You got it right, Wes. You don't need to be a tax expert to gasp at the graft here and the political propaganda.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was going to medical school, during my first year, I got angry because there were some terrible lecturers. One of my classmates came to me and said "You cannot expect them to to their job." I lost the anger focused on my studies. If the professors were good, there was good attendance, if not, one could hear the crickets chirp. Let's face it, The DOJ and IRS will not do their jobs even with Mr. Kroll giving a solid lecture with evidence and giving his information the Iowa attorney journal. If someone has information on these individuals who try to destroy the profession with their collusion; If they is any signs of impropriety with monies or ethics, then send the evidence to their medical schools and alumni associations. Set up a booth at the ACP and talk to whoever will listen. Set up a booth at ASCO. Send a letter to the editor in the Journal of Clinical Oncology to ask why they would support something without substantial evidence. Sen that same letter to the Americal Society of Hematology, and to all the society's and force them to make a stand or be held accountable. Challenge openly Dr. Baron, Dr, Cassel, Dr. Wachter to debates and see if they will respond. Call them out openly in the medical journals. If there is evidence that MOC hurts and harms patients, which we know they do, complain to the medical boards and force them to take a stand. If MOC hurts minorities by limiting patient access or taking away their physicians, give this information the the ACLU or NAACP. Call each of them out by name. Does a letter need to be sent to the UC regents concerning the activities of Dr. Wachter? Does Kaiser need a letter sent to them about the shenanigans of Dr. Cassel? Should e mails be sent to all Kaiser Physicians so they know and colleges concerning that Dr. Cassel is a Dean of the new Kaiser medical school and that colleges should avoid this potential future harm to medical students and physicians when these students wish to apply to medical school. I am sure the ABIM sees them as future cash cows. Call out the quality NGO's and their physicians by name and in the journals so that they cannot hide behind the systems.
ReplyDeleteEach of them and the individuals who collude need to be called out. Keep the heat on then. Cockroaches don't like the light as they know they will be squashed. When the money is drying up and few of them are made accountable, the rest will run. Sadly, the ethical physicians have to do the work as the DOJ and IRS will not.
With the American Board of Internal Medicine in the passenger seat right next to the American College of Cardiologists, the ACC is no longer physician-driven, but goaded by the same special interests and greedy hands that pull the strings of the entire ABMS and quality assurance cartel.
ReplyDeletewhat some folks may not know about the abim is that they have very little feeling for people
ReplyDeletethey've done awful things that they should be called out on including discrimination
they really are deceitful and hurtful and MOC is a byproduct of those feelings they lack
i don't know about the entire abms, but many of the executives intentionally covered-up horrible messes they made - a lot of very nasty individuals that should not be serving the public
don't know about the ACC, but if their leadership goes along with the ABIM helping them bury and hide things, they are no better than the other corrupt indviduals who display hypocrisy every day at the abim
Choosing wisely conversations should include questioning one of the most duplicative and harmful tests which is forced on physicians against their will every day. MOC.
ReplyDeleteABIM racketeers in "corporatism", "crony politics", and and "professionalism"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iRVIaw8BHw
ABIM accepts no money from the industry, but accepts individual contributions via highly conflicted but lucrative board of directors/advisory positions from Kaiser Permanente, Premier, Inc., IPC, the Hospitalist, HealthFinch, pharmaceutical companies, tech giants/startups and countless other examples.
We have people literally crying to get healthcare in rural America and these yayhoos at ACC are flying off to Shanghai? Dubai? Mexico City? Do they understand that our rural communities and cities are in a world of hurt because of divisive and deleterious programs such as MOC? We are losing our docs. Medical education is something every doctor participates in and state medical boards do a great job with requiring and monitoring this. MOC to me is primarily about patient access to care. I can see where the ACC stands on patients' right to care and how they treat their doctors with disregard. The ACC is just one more hot air balloon flying around the world staying at luxury hotels with exotic food and entertainment.
ReplyDeleteDoes ACC's conflicts of interest disclosure policy include/require individuals and the entire organization (ACC, ACCF, ACCPAC) to list MOC or any related product/service or organization making a market from MOC? Is not the collaboration/collusion of ACC with the ABMS a major conflict of interest. I'd have an attorney look that over their coi policy/disclosure requirements before the board, CEO/CFO sign off on their tax forms this year. This latest development and posture/turning a blind eye is troubling and should raise some alarm bells withing the organization. I have one question in looking over this letter that was quietly circulated. Why did they have one of their staff members sign it and not a signature or at least a co-signature and personal statemenet from the CEO? With as much money as the head of the ACC is making his digital mark should be on all documents and correspondence. There is something amiss here in the organization. Thanks for bringing this letter and concerns about the organiztion to light, Dr. Fisher.
ReplyDeleteLois' Largess (walking away with millions after doing nothing for physicians and patients, leaving the corruption and MOC mess for the next ABMS/AMA crony.)
ReplyDeleteThe ABMS also went to Shanghai spending physicians'/clients money for Lois Nora CEO and others to have a nice time seeing the country. The largess, politics of power and money at the ABMS and what they are doing to preserver the MOC gravy train should be obvious to everyone by now.
Conflicted executives are fighting a losing battle and depleting their reserves quickly, just as Christine Cassel put the ABIM personally in jeopardy and Dr. Rich Baron does now after Chris Cassel went over to attempt to clean up/cover up the Chuck Denham/NQF/CareFusion kickback scandal and keep the DOJ from putting yellow tape aroung their K Street Offices in DC. This was done with the ABIM Chairman, Bob Wachter and other who knew of the dire situation and what it meant for their federal contracts and reputation. On and on the corruption and personal largess flows without restraint at the ABMS and ACGME. Unbridled spending and self dealing are like fish in water.
Physicians have been Shanghaied by MOC and deceptivie business practices which include illicit collusion of industry and NGOs, overbilling of clients, waste, public fraud and restraint of trade, and betraying physicians' constitutional rights.
Where are the DOJ and IRS? They have an obligation to investigate. Where is the White House on these issues. When is Donald Trump and his Attorney General going to look at the the massive corruption and siphoning of hundreds of millions of dollars by the quality assurance cartel and the billions that are at stake for the special interests they serve.
Lois Nora spreading ABMS propaganda in China, 2017. Classic. Speaking about "voluntary nature of certification and MOC", saying that it is the hospitals/insurers who often require certification/MOC. "Think of certification as initial and ongoing."
ReplyDeleteNora says it was "insane" to have a lifetime certification. Based on "studies" proving MOC enhances patient care and physicians inability to self assess it is necessary to have MOC. "Says MOC started in the 1970's."
"Innovation with technology will make it possible for the option to take the MOC test home or to the office with two-year testing." Discussion video was not provided.
Click Standards in Medical Education (no photo) in the video link page. Lois Nora ABMS
Followed by Susan Day with the ACGME presenting the Development of Standards in Medical Education. Next video with photo of Day.
This
The Qatar Foundation is a personal and political slush fund that is outside US laws, but our Department of State and DOJ needs to take a look at them along with the ABMS/ACGME - and it looks like the ACC with its huge investment in data and ai - are also participating in to not increase physician populations in the US and the world to save lives, but just the opposite. The plan is for more reliance of lower skilled/lower paid providers, advances in technology and enhancd artificial intelligence, which they believe is just around the corner.
ReplyDeleteWhat we are witnessing is the undermining of the profession of medicine by NGOs and medical societies doing everything in their power to curtail the abilities of docs to do their jobs and secretly diminish the numbers of doctors (MOC is one key component to control of their "providers" and diminishing physician numbers). MOC and the development of AI/increasing the number of clerical providers only fits in while at the same time the AAMC, ABMS, ACP and AMA are hypocritically saying there is a physicians shortage.
Physicians are already being pushed into a box at work to being less of a professional and more of a data clerk. Docs are sheepishly providing data for their own future demise and being reduced to clerks by pharmacies and public and private payers. It is plain to see that there is no intention to actually push for more physicians (we don't see it happening).
But instead what we do see is a push for increasing revenues to enhance the bottom lines of tech companies, payers, and efforts to reduce government burdens in medicare, medicaid and social security - while the defense budget keeps growing. We evem see at the ABMS oddly corporate attorneys with merger and aquisition skills taking over the CEO positions at medical boards almost in secret where knowledge of medicine, including public health degreess are critical. How are we to interpret this except as the corporate takover of the ABMS and the collusive undermining of physician/patients rights.
The bizarre and enigmatic ABIM/ABMS/AMA/ACP support for project DX under the guise that it will enhance third world medicine and make up for the shortages of physicians is actually intended for use in the United States and other developed countries to collect data for AI and eventually to keep costs of medicine down by putting a shoestring around the ankles of the professional workforce. Less skilled providers along with advancing technologies run by enhanced artificial intelligence will read tests, look at ex-rays, diagnose and treat patients under supervision of the doctors trained by founding deans of new medical schools where rivers of change are promised including holographic physicians, patients and Microsoft's patented cadavers/3-d anatomical journeys.
Money is being poured into the next generations of algorhythms that will make learning machines more capable and less prone to the errors of the past. The abilities of programers to solve the neurological issues in the brains of AI machines/robots will tell us where the next phase in enhanced AI and how far the future is where there will be even fewer trained physicians - not more as is being called for.
hat is more troubling, pilot universities are training physicians for residency programs already in other countries. They have already received the blessing and full accreditation of the ACGME and ABMS programs are in negotiation or advanced phases of implementation. Fewer physicians is the obvious plan and fewer home-grown physicians will be the wave of the future (of the entire world) if the ABMS, ACGME, AMA, ACP, AAMC get their way.
And now you can add the ACC to that list of physician-supported/phyician-driven societies that plans on serving not physicians and the public but the bottom line of corporate America and an increasing globalist agenda. The ACA is literally driving physicians out by putting them off and not reassuring them of where they stand and which side of the tracks they stand on. The train they appear to be on right now is rolling down Wall Street creating a stark division between themselves and working clinicians.
ReplyDeleteAlong with Nora and Day at the Shanghai conference were tech compainies and online learning corporations and others that might tell us where some of the their new converts and recruits will be coming from. There will be more opportunity for companies to save money by offshoring technologies, learning platforms, testing, and other duties to foreign countries where costs can be contained and brought down to leve where the US workforce and technologies cannot compete without being subsidized.
https://www.innohealthed.com/event_media/videos-and-podcasts/
http://www.abms-i.org/images/ABMS_Qatar_Meeting.pdf
https://www.innohealthed.com/
https://qatar-weill.cornell.edu/media-and-news/fact-sheet
http://www.acgme-i.org/About-Us/Mission
https://www.qf.org.qa/news/developing-physician-specialty-assessments
It is time for physicians to become leaders again. Stand up and stop the assembly line. Blow the whistle.
ReplyDeleteThe MOC/CERT Trade
ReplyDeleteThis article reminded me of the ABIM/ABMS. The ABIM Foundation laundered over $70 million dollars in profits under the noses of the IRS and DOJ. It offshores millions more to Carribean banks and other tax free havens such as Ireland to grow and preserve their booty.
"Florida Cops Laundered Millions For Drug Cartels, Failed To Make A Single Arrest
Posing as money launderers, police in Bal Harbour and Glades County, Fla. laundered a staggering $71.5 million for drug cartels in an undercover sting operation, according to an in-depth investigation by The Miami Herald. With fake identities, undercover officers made deals to pick up cash from criminal organizations in cities across the country. Agents then delivered the money to Miami-Dade storefronts and even wired cash to banks overseas in China and Panama. After laundering the cash, police would skim a three percent commission fee, ultimately generating $2.4 million for themselves."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2015/07/10/florida-cops-laundered-millions-for-drug-cartels-failed-to-make-a-single-arrest/#1ccd5a223a9e
What is the National Cardiology Data Registry NCDR up to with their data projects, and how could this data collection corporation acting under the ACC banner allow such a massive data breach to occur and not know of it for several years?
ReplyDeleteHow bad was the breach and can we believe the press releases warning patients that personal data was compromised and at risk of identity theft? Yet, if you read their words carefully you can see they were trying to downplay the consequences of such a major data breach at the same time. It is huge when one has to contact 1400 institutions with disclosure of the breach and warnings and advice on precautions to take. How can you downplay such a huge failure?
My question is why did the ACC cover up or ignore this massive breach event for up to six or seven years as it occurred between 2009 and 2010. It was only revealed in 2016. Who blew the whistle and forced the ACC to announce and take action. Was it coming from one of the institutions that was breached? Or was it internal. Or both? I suspect this latter scenario was the case, but the media never investigates anything that matters to ordinary citizens. The corporation wanted to keep a steady stream of data and revenue.
Who was responsible for this breach at the executive level and what disciplinary actions were taken against any individual or individuals. What have they done to prevent it in the future? How do we know that there have not been recent events that have been successfully hushed up as well, if that was the case here. It appears all too often we don't find out about embarrassing and costly security issues in a timely manner and this may tell us a bit about the ACC leadership that is not very flattering. It's like toxic waste dumped in a stream or river which is associated with hundreds of thousands of people's drinking water and they do not see fit to mention it or find out until after the damage is done and the health consequences begin to manifest. People lose their jobs and go to jail for such failures, but mostly for the coverup.
It is not just the data breach, but the coverup and secrecy that I am troubled by. This lack of honesty and transparency is one of the most concerning parts in the coninuing saga of betrayals by the medical boards and the medical societies.
We have seen wanton abuses coming from the ABMS concerning violations against physicians where they planned and executed quasi-police/mafia style attackss stealing data and invading privacy using felons with histories of civil abuses and attorneys who were dirty to the core. This is a fact. So how can ACC just bury its head in the proverbial sand and pretend nothing happened or that they even utilized an exepensive condo overlooking Liberty Square for the violations of civil liberties and the largess of a ruthless and contemptible CEO who cared/cares little for anything except political ambition and money.
ReplyDeleteACC's relationship with the ABIM/ABMS makes me highly suspicious of them. That is just a natural instinct of protection. It is a fact. What I see of them, not the physicians doing good within the org, but the executives and others who show a lack of moral principle. I detest executives that lie to the public or rob with hypocritical actions and statements. That is what the ABIM/ABMS has done. I have grown to loathe medical boards such as the ABIM for providing their clients no protection under the constitution and ignoring privacy norms as already mentioned using unprinicpled thugs and uncouth teams of people to do harm.
ReplyDeleteThe ABIM executives, including Dr. Baron, the current President and CEO of the ABIM and ABIM Foundation used physicians hard earned money to attack individuals, companies and families. He helped with this in a large way. He may hate himself for his role, I don't know, but he has not resigned so I believe he has not conscience. He, Castle, Holmboe, Mannes, Weinstein, Baranowski, Langdon and others planned and carried out violatory acts against their candidates and diplomates that must not every be forgotten or hushed up.
I am talking about the heinous abuse of power under Christine Cassel with the assistance of many others like Eric Holmboe and Richard Baron who were rewarded with lucrative positions at the ABIM and ACGME for their "services" not in keeping with their job descriptions. Everyone who reads this blog knows what I am talking about so there is no need to repeat it involving the illegal and immoral intentional seizure/theft of their personal data and using it to persecute thousands. And use of the media and strongman tactics to threaten and intimidate hundreds of thousands more.
What I am saying is these medical boards and specialty societies have crossed the lines of decency where they have breached trust and betrayed people by the hundreds of thousands. This all trickles down in a flood of human suffering to patients. How can they expect to have our trust and loyalty with such abuse and overreach. They have all lost touch with basic human decency and have become professional liars and thieves. The lie with propaganda and they rob with take-it-or-leave-it contracts that are illegal and unethical as they leave nothing to choice. Voluntary? Not a bit of it.
They rob people of their livelihoods, reputations, money and data. How dare they even use the name "American" in their names. They have cheapened our country and they have sold themselves out for money for decades.
The ACC, with its back stabs, has taken us to the end of an era of honesty, decency and principled action and speech in America. What they do shows how extremely out of touch they are. They don't even come close to actualizing their mottos.
ReplyDeleteYet there are decent people in every organization unless they are dramatically forced out, as often happens/happened to tighten control. One would like to think that there can be change and one would like to believe in a better future, but it is obvious that without some real metanoia on the part of leadership they should resign.
ABMS/Quality Assurance Protection Racket and the Importance of MOC to Maintain It
ReplyDeleteBut why?
Over and over we see the themes of "money" and "control" emerging as the primary movers/motivating factors of the ABMS, ACGME, medical societies, quality assurance NGO's, myriads of foundations, along with a number of associated governmental and quasi-governmental agencies such as the NQF and NCQA.
How much money is at stake, who are the players, both overt and covert, and why do these agents need to control physicians?
With the ABMS, their mission is no longer about public quality and safety as they give only lip service to this and precious little is expended on improving their products/services involving safety and quality. They are quite stingy in this regard; instead we see them, paying themselves vast sums, while funneling profits to foundation/hedgefunds, retirement accounts, investment properties, offshore tax havens, and so on.
All this money is channeled mostly for themselves, with only pigeon crumbs and partisan propaganda going to the public from their MOC-enhanced, data-driven revenues and substantial portfolios of diversified investments.
It appears most of the revenues go to executives who are obviously appointees in a revolving-door shell game. The rest is show-money going to social, health, and political propaganda with an undisclosed portion going to lobbying sometimes under the wrong headings of "financial consulations" and "legal fees".
This latter anomaly has has been demonstrated by the ABIM in their obtuse, obfuscated and highly creative accounting methods, which seems to have slipped through the IRS' cracks or ignored.
In their accounting to the IRS US tax laws, geographical, jurisdictional and legal forums have been made topsy turvy with a Pennsylvania domocile being fraudulently stated as Iowa for the ABIM Foundation for years. Lax Iowa tax laws and enforcement and powerful political and legal allies in Pennsylvania are a few of the reasons why.
A brief statistical analysis of the ABIM tax forms, alarmingly, shows that in the years of highest expenditure for financial and legal consultations, the margins of financial error have proved to be highest. The amounts of unaccounted for cash is greatest and confusion/error about who is CEO of the organization and who is CFO are likewise critical mistakes accompnaying the missing cash and creative shell-game accounting.
But it all this ink altered on the pages of IRS tax forms stands out like a pinata waiting for blind-folded clients and the concerned public to take turns hitting at. The tax forms of the ABIM and the ABIM Foundation are a real pinata each year.
We are each year stabbing at the creative renderings of their activities sin luz trying to get at the core truth about the money and what kind of lobbying or what other personal self-dealing enterprises/luxuries they spent it on.
But as with much of the financial and political sheanigans that the ABMS/ABIM have engaged in over the decades, even if someone makes a lucky hit at the pinata, the concerned public and agencies will most likely find only confetti inside.
It's a protection racket afterall.
Make changes, suspend, or to end MOC requirements? Why not let physicians vote on it.
ReplyDeleteI vote to end MOC immediatley as the AMA House of Delegates resolved.
Looking at the controversy over MOC. Much of the difficulty in ending MOC is in the power and money special interests have invested in their vision of the future. Autonomy is a threat to the vision of the future that many tech and health corporations have. And government officials/investors in Great Britain and the Netherlands and in American have their sights on new tech and AI to create a two-fold economic expansion in the next decade. They have strong influence over the ABMS and ACGME through Pearson, WoltersKluwer and Elsevier, all Anglo Dutch conglomerates that have bought their way into healthcare and education markets. They have flattered leaders like Eric Holmboe and Christine Cassel with honorary degrees, although it is one globalist corporate vision they share together. Robert Wachter has become an exponent for special interests. He is involved heavily in the UK's NHS technology and Chancellor Phillip Hammond says that AI intelligence which needs data to flow freely is the future of healthcare with cost savings in the billions annually for the nations. 300 billion for the huge US economy in healthcare savings. It is not about MOC, MOC has no value and is even harmful. The UK physicians is already subdued along with the Canadian docs. Now they need to have US physicians with their tails pinned up in the barn.
There are conflicts of interest and strong motivating factors for some to "go along" with the MOC program and its larger vision for health and education. For our society. How we will live our lives, heal, and fight wars through dependence on AI. These are not my words these are the words of government officials, tech companies, investment bankers throughout the world.
Fyi
Brigham Health is a major participant in the ACC NCDR
https://cvquality.acc.org/NCDR-Home/participant-directory
Dr. Patrick O’Gara with Brigham Health/Harvard has accepted the invitation to serve as the Self-Assessment Program Editor-in-Chief for the SAP Collection.
https://physiciandirectory.brighamandwomens.org/details/1212/patrick-ogara-cardiovascular_medicine-boston
Brigham Health/Harvard drug data registry
https://www.brighamandwomens.org/research/center-for-clinical-investigation/investigational-drug-service
Harvard, ABIM, ABMS, AMA, ACP and other have invested in other data collection registries such as the Human DX project
https://www.humandx.org/team
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/online-symptom-checkers-youll-still-want-to-call-a-doctor-when-somethings-wrong-with-you-2016111410607
How many docs are pressured by powerful forces, even the lure of money/political stature or the fear of losing their jobs? It is important to think freely with facts about MOC. How many can do that? Overwhelmingly MOC gets the no vote from physicians. Wha is MOC mandated/required still? It should end today.
Who's wagging the tails? Or is the tail wagging the dog?
ReplyDelete"Trump’s 1st State of the Union: Artificial intelligence and the future of America"
ReplyDelete"This issue goes far beyond myopic conversations about weaponized robots, autonomous killing systems, or advanced cyber-attacks. From self-driving cars to critical advances in medicine such as CT scan analysis or precision surgery, AI will have the ability to reshape nearly every aspect of our day-to-day lives. On a larger scale, AI and the related technologies it will generate will have the capacity to not only drastically augment any nation-state’s core economic and security capabilities, but rapidly redistribute the division of power in the world. Woe be unto any nation that falls behind in this race."
Equity Healthcare
ReplyDelete(www.equityhealthcare.com)
First healthplan services provider to show BofB reduction in trend (and outperformance of national trend) confirmed by reduction in inpatient utilization using the utilization measurement “gold standard” to capture combined impact of all UM/DM/CM/wellness activities.
Sells exclusively to private equity firms and their portfolio companies, which are interested in getting savings, not showing savings. (The two concepts are polar opposites.) EH has lowered trend by total population health management, with savings confirmed by utilization reductions in the categories of care most amenable to such management.
The DMPC Gold Standard: The Exhaustive Listing of Vendors/Carriers/Consultants Measuring Validly
Comparing two ABMS medical boards' MOC requirements (ABIM and ABPM) and why it is necessary to end ABMS MOC today
ReplyDeleteABIM MOC "Knowledge Check-in" is every two years requiring a 3-hour test at home, office, or test center instead of the all-day 10 year exam. Your computer and space must meet strict requirements (upgrades required) and you MUST sign digital contracts that may lead to civil or criminal prosecution at the whim of the ABIM or a third-party online proctor. If you fail, you might be required to do the 10-year exam. (I am still not able to figure out the total cost. It is too confusing what all the fees are for and how much money/which fees are credited toward testing and what goes to maintaining the MOC account and the ABIM's expensive bureaucracy. No full, accurate accounting is provided by the ABIM even when requested. Why not? There should be a clear history of payment and what it is for provided for MOC. They should take some of Rich Baron's compensation and hire some more bureaucrats to do what any utility company is required to do.)
http://www.abim.org/maintenance-of-certification/moc-faq/moc-assessments.aspx
Compare ABIM two-year testing to the American Board of Preventive Medicine MOC exam, which is required every 10 years. No two-year test offered yet. But a two-year test may be offered at some point by the ABMS to enhance their revenues. If they do so, prepare for some very unhappy MOC captives protesting at the ABPM.
Here's why there would be riots among the ABPM diplomates and a striking example of the very disparate MOC requirements and policies among the ABMS medical boards:
ABIM diplomates who are not grandfathered better be sitting down when you read this comparitive data between the ABIM and ABPM.
ABPM 10-year MOX exam is a 2-hour paper-and-pencil test with only 100 mulitple choice questions. Subspecialty only with no core content included. Price $1750. No annual fees. Stand-alone is test offered in conjunction with reveiw course or CME conference at a luxurious hotel several times a year in the spring, summer and fall. There will be 6 two-hour in-person paper and pencil exams offered in 2018. See below.
https://www.theabpm.org/maintain-certification/
In today's world with access to medical knowledge 24/7 doctor's are in a realtime test mode with actual medical challenges on every level every day where they must access knowledge, test their professionalism, and ethics. They are keeping up to date every day, otherwise one could not get through the day. These realtime tests provided everyday should be enough maintenance along with the state CME requirements. Is the ABMS that out of touch? MOC is onerous and redundant and as you can see the ABIM/ABMS are making the test all online at home/office wiht open-book use of Up-To-Date anyway. How ludicrous. It pokes a holes 600 holes in all their arguments. What BS just for the largess, money and power to continue.
Furthermore, the ABPM lets you review for your test at a course and then take the test. What does all this prove? It proves the ABMS is all about the money.They want those lucrative MOC fees. It is all about politics, propaganda and power. Let's have a lifetime certification again. Cut out the MOC crap. Docs do the hard work of keeping up everyday, while the ABMS executives sit on their laurels getting obscene paychecks, inventing more onerous BS by the day. The ABMS MOC mandate only does harm to patients and physicians.
It really is time that the ABMS stops harming everyone. End MOC completely, now.
It is time for the entire ABMS to reform, bring in a-political clinically competent doctors who volunteer to lead the organizations back to the original core mission, which is and always should be to focus on initial certification and keep the ABMS medical boards free of corruption. The ABMS right now is as full of conflicts of interest and dualities of interest as it can get.
ReplyDeleteAh, the ABMS. The place where MOC corruption began and where it should end.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the ABMS relationship with insurers and hospitals currently and what collusion was involved to get them to require certification and MOC initially?
It is wonderful to see state legislatures and phsycians across the country joining forces to do something fighting back against the corrupt regaulatory capture and restraint of trade.
"TMA expects the state’s new MOC laws, coupled with a favorable medical liability climate and other qualities that help Tennessee rank among the best states in which to practice medicine, will improve the state’s efforts to recruit and retain the best physicians.
https://www.bluecrossnc.com/sites/default/files/document/attachment/providers/public/pdfs/bqpp/ps_syllabus.pdf
MOC COI AND DOI (The Ring)
ReplyDeleteThe ABMS executives live in a fishbowl of filth and pretend that nobody is wathcing how they wriggle and pucker.
Random online searches show how dirty the water is as it pours through the computer screen. Reminds one of that film "The Ring". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ring_(2002_film)
MOC has that same quality that makes everyone insane like living stuck in endless horror.
Just type in the phrase "ABMS MOC" online and be prepared to go mad. Look at the random evil that floods the screen and drowns you pulling you down their dark MOC well . . .
MOC is ubiqutious with its hunger for money and thirst for power (fact not fiction) it lures you in or you resist and protect yourself if your eyes are open . . .
"ABMS® Quality Improvement in Practice
Online PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT Activity
A Continuing Education Activity Jointly Sponsored by
HEALTHSTREAM"
"ABMS, HealthStream, BlueCross" (Collusion)
https://www.bluecrossnc.com/sites/default/files/document/attachment/providers/public/pdfs/bqpp/ps_syllabus.pdf
Future Collusion
"HealthStream and PressGaney News (HealthStream sale of PatientExperience PX to PressGaney)"
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180212006145/en/HealthStream-Announces-Divestiture-Patient-Experience-PX-Business
And don't fall into the well of their tax forms, you will never get out
One stares like a zombie seeing the ABMS in all its financial darkness as a Wall Street Darling and not the Non-Profit Public Charity it professes to be.
The tax filings and actions reveal that it must be one of the many faceless darlings of Wall Street and K Street.
ABMS tax returns shows 6 businesses, some not meeting IRS requirements to be non-profit
The businesses are used to supplement the earnings of the executives and support the huge compensatory packages and golden parachutes. Reading the tax filings will twist your neck out of shape. They are so bent and convoluted with insane desire for money and global power strewn everywhere. One can't believe the story the forms tell. You have to go back and forth between separate filings to make any sense out of the 6 businesses and their lucrative activities and investments.
Key people/contractors are left out of critical schedules, such as the newly appointed executive director of the ABMS ABPM. They say he was a key executive at ABMS in 2015 and 2016. IRS documents come up blank for the new non-physician director of the most important medical board for preventive medicine, population health, drug addiction, industrial medicine, data collection and informatics.
You can easily go mad looking for what they should have revealed but failed to provide.
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/410847713
Here next on the dark MOC screen is the ABMS flagship board ABIM hiding it's K Street lobbying from its clients. They erroneously told the IRS that hey did no lobbying. Another series of false statments revealed. You can go insane expecting them to be honest and trustworthy. In fact they did so much lobbying behind the scenes that history will probably never accurately record all the messes they made and harm they did with their zealous activities.
http://drwes.blogspot.com/2015/05/abim-fails-to-disclose-lobbying-efforts.html
Just don't look at the screen is my advice after spying their dark MOC well stalking me online.
But then they want you to do two-year testing online by looking at their hypnotic screen.
Watch out, you will never return if you fall into the darkness behind their greedy shceme. Don't sign anything or agree to let them do evil to you.
Get all the states to enact strong anti-MOC legislation.
Do it before they become too powerful to stop.
This is not a joke. It is real.
Addendum to horror
ReplyDeletePress Ganey presents
http://www.abms.org/media/84781/06-thomas-lee_engaging-doctors-in-the-health-care-revolution.pdf
MOC is insanity. When is it going to end?
ReplyDeleteDr. Wes:
ReplyDeletePlease ask your interventional colleagues about the new reporting requirements for each procedure that they complete. The ACC now demands nearly 14 pages of information for each procedure.
Do you think that the ACC sells that information to vendors, industry, or government? The ACC wants to transform into the equivalent version of Facebook even as we pay for the privilege.
Selling our professional data to Medtronic or Boston Scientific could prove quite lucrative.
The fixed salaries and egalitarian compensation of a privte equity firm. Click executive compensation in the table of contents. Scroll down; best to be sitting down.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1393818/000119312515069653/d849048d10k.htm#tx849048_17
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1393818/000119312513087702/d447995d10k.htm#tx447995_17
http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001393818/ce0072cd-b2dc-4e50-800c-f2f5981cdcca.pdf
Achieving higher quality and lower cost healthcare involves a change in behavior.
ReplyDeleteCan the ABIM and other ABMS medical boards change their behavior to achieve a higher quality certification for life at a lower cost to its clients? That is the business they need to focus on.
If they cannot achieve this, or keep proving themselves incapable of focusing on a quality core product, what would and should happen in the real world where everyone is held accountable for their actions and efforts.
Does the ABMS need to divest itself of the most costly, innefectual and even destrtucive component for clients and the public? The consensus is yes.
And that component is MOC.
In order to achieve the highest quality healthcare at the lowest possible cost, and with greater accessibility there is no other choice, than to end the MOC program.
To end MOC is the only reasonable course of action. Everyone believes this, even the AMA delegates who wrote a resolution stating such.
The only ones who do not believe this have conflicts of interest or a duality of interests.
It is time for the public, clients, and the board to unhinge those who do so much harm to us all.
"Chief Finance and Business Officer wanted for the American Board of Anesthesiology"
ReplyDeleteCEO: "We'd like to offer you the position. Your experience and credentials are ideal."
Applicant: "I will take the job, but only on two conditions."
CEO: "Great, what do you want. Name it."
Applicant: "We have to be more efficient and focused. I mean I have a problem with those stupid mandatory coffee breaks for docs and the 10-year brain drain, where you have to cram in useless knowledge that is quickly forgotten. We really have to cut out those MOCA MINUTES. These time-outs are senselessly distracting and decrease productivity. Way too time consuming and getting in the way of physicians from taking care of patients. Plus these constant breaks limit the flow/access of patients to their doctors, and they distract physicians from learning what is needed for their specialty and each unique patient. I'm firm on this point; the coffed breaksnd the big ten year high-stakes testing have to go."
CEO and HR manager in shock: "Uh, ok, what is your second condition?"
Applicant: "I want to run the organization as an all volunteer organiztion with a voluntary certification for life as it was in the beginning. And I want to make everyone's life much simpler by making it a non-pecuniary organization again; that is to say, no compensation for the directors, officers and especially the executives who are robbing the charity blind."
CEO with a slight blush of red: "Well, we were looking for someone with knowledge of the boards, how is it you appear to know so much already. I'm afraid that you might know too much about us ..."
Applicant smiling: "My great uncle founded one of the medical boards back in the 1930's. He warned me that something like this would happen where the boards would be all about the money. My uncle made me pledge to try to correct it, if it happened. And he asked me to never stop shouting about it until the medical boards are restored back to non-pecuniary volunteer charities again in keeping with the original pact with physicians. That pact was a pledge to offer a lifetime specialty certificate that is not tied to employment or payment. He said that a man or women's pledge is their bond and could not be taken back. Greed and political malice killed that pledge. The pact of a voluntary certificate for life needs to be restored."