"ABIM has created a lucrative new revenue source by forcing internists to buy MOC. The new MOC revenue has not been used in the interests of the internist community, but to serve the economic interests of ABIM management, including overly generous compensation, ABIM’s lavish pension plan, and purchase of a $2.3 million condominium used by ABIM management."It was almost six years ago the story of ABIM's $2.3 million condominium was told. It was a tale of corruption, greed, and the laundering of physician testing fees to create the ABIM Foundation using the smokescreen of repeated physician testing called Maintenance of Certification (MOC®) as a mark of a physician's "professionalism." Working physicians, however, knew better. They felt first-hand the financial and emotional toll this ever-changing program caused. MOC® was always about the money, but most physicians were too afraid to speak up lest they lose their jobs. Today MOC® remains a story of adhesion contracts to force payments to the numerous conflicted interests of the medical publishing, credentialing, device, pharmaceutical, and hospital supply line industries in exchange for the physician data it generates.
- From the Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants filed yesterday
The irony of Richard Baron, MD, President and CEO of the ABIM and ABIM Foundation discussing disinformation on Fox News from the comfort of his own home is lost on few US physicians. So is the irony that the insurance industry is poised to make a windfall on the unaffordable insurance law they helped author.
These conflicts have come at a very stiff price for many United States physicians, nurses, and medical technicians who toil on the front lines without sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) today. MOC® and the data entry it required fed Group Purchase Organizations and the insurance industry the data they needed to squeeze the suppliers of materials and the suppliers of care. As Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil explained in his recent New Yorker article, its all a game of assuring a sizable profit margins for these the little-known supply line organizations who receive kickbacks in return for their efforts:
“Hospitals typically don’t order masks as individual buyers,” he told me. He spoke deliberately, with the slightest Texan drawl. Instead, they negotiate contracts as members of a Group Purchasing Organization—representing hundreds or thousands of hospitals—and, as Bowen explained, the G.P.O. always “chooses the cheapest bid.”Yesterday the Brief of Plaintiffs-Appellants was filed in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals against the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) regarding MOC®. In that Brief, the physician plaintiffs argue that the earlier District Court erred in dismissing (1) the anti-trust tying claims with prejudice, (2) the monopolization claims, (3) the racketeering claims, and (4) the unjust enrichment claims made by the plaintiffs concerning MOC. The details of the clearly-written 78-page brief argue why.
As health care workers struggle to cope with our current US supply line shortcomings, the US physician MOC® story takes on new meaning. Now more than ever, US physicians deserve their day in court concerning the exploitation they have endured because of MOC®.
If this case finally proceeds to discovery, we might just find the real truth about MOC® after all.
-Wes
P.S.: Working physicians are encouraged to contribute the the GoFundMe page supporting the physician plaintiffs in this ongoing case.
33 comments:
The problem I see with the plaintiff's filed complaint against the ABIM and their May 4 2020 appeal is that it is not thorough/specific enough and too "civil". Let's hope it leads to meaningful discovery, ripples throughout the ABMS, followed by a sealed case leading to harsh fines and long overdue indictments. But primarily, I look forward to the end of the Ponzi scheme called MOC/Longitudinal Assessment -- or whatever iteration/name their illegal manipulations of labor and defrauding of the public goes by.
Article from Adam Candeub, Professor of Law. Michigan State Univ. College of Law
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3584793
ABIM/ABMS MOC endangering American lives
"ABMS’ behavior and policies go beyond raising prices or imposing unjustified costs to
actually endangering American lives- as COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates. Hospitals,
particularly in the New York City area and southwestern Michigan, where the disease is having
its greatest impact, have a tremendous need for additional physicians. But, numerous reports
indicate that the major hospitals in these areas are refusing to consider non-ABMS certified
physicians who are offering to work. These hospitals are refusing to hire some of the most highly
qualified emergency physicians—with long and distinguished professional records who want to
help their fellow Americans during this crisis—simply because they hold certifications from a non-ABMS certifying body." PAGE 9
https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=879069123085014123090069089115002089002048019033051075102067111004003066105027102096019100018115060113111022103015064124107010121090086001023005102085007115005126036021041096079098001116111080112122088066069123067070011104087106100072004090090102086&EXT=pdf
Unjust enrichment? Executive largess is rampant at all the ABMS medical boards. It is self-evident among most physicians that mandated MOC is intentionally tied to certification as a lever over the profession. Fraudulent claims to hospitals and insurers based on "less than robust science" (proprietary propaganda) is scandalous when the real purposes of MOC/CPD are the revenues streams and profits it generates - not public safety.
The whole story-line of public safety told to the IRS is a smack in the face to the hardworking taxpayer. The execs at the ABIM are clearly rent seekers, wanting an easy ride, while clandestinely pursue their personal political agendas. Many of the executives have lived in or near Washington DC and not in Philly at all. The luxury condo reeks of self-enrichment, financial intrigue, back-street lobbying and politics.
It all smacks of anti-trust and racketeering. ABIM is playing the game of monopoly, where the ABMS/ABIM, et al owns the board. Wherever you land with the roll of the dice you land on MOC-WALK or MOC-PLACE. They own the interstate tracks. The own all the properties through decades of cunning and guile using MOC as means to fill their personal accounts. They secretly created big piggy bank offshore investments, for profit corporations, and bastard foundations (ABIMF, ICE, ABMS Solutions, ABMS International) as as means to pad their incomes and fund their golden parachutes.
They have hoarded so much cash they even appear to have enough to pay their parent organizations (ACP/AMA) and partners (FSMB/IMAP/NCQA/URAC/The JC) for their "cooperation".
https://www.abms.org/verify-certification/official-abms-display-agent-partners/
https://www.abms.org/media/257835/official-abms-display-agent-list-jan-2020.pdf
Choosing Wisely (an ABIMF campaign) is a windfall for the insurance companies, HMO plans, and other payers that are led to believe erroneously that MOC is in the public's best interest.
https://www.consumerreports.org/health/choosing-wisely-about-unneeded-medical-care/
https://www.rwjf.org/en/how-we-work/grants-explorer/featured-programs/choosing-wisely.html
What about the egregious conflicts of interest? The racketeering? Unjust enrichment? The march to monopoly power and the wielding of that power? The corruption and complacency? The deafening and aggravating silence from these monopolists and how they harm physicians and the public. Organizations like the ABIM (which is part of the ABMS/ACGME continuum) typically create bodies of protection and schemes/mechanisms for the protection that protection.
This article should be standard reading for physicians who may not understand how far an organization can go to "protect" itself and what harms it does to the profession and the public.
http://drwes.blogspot.com/2016/06/maintenance-of-certification-medicines.html
A history of money, power and abuse at the medical specialty boards from the 1960's onward
ABIM certification revenues reached a peak around the mid 1970's as the internist certification market began to be saturated. ABIM's timeline for the introduction of CPD underscores their search for income to support "independent executives" without term limits who were written into the bylaws, thus corrupting and undermining the checks and balances of governance by an elected board - directors that had time-limits on their terms. The AMA and ACP, parents of the ABIM unfortunately had a stranglehold on the medical specialty board (ABIM) as their bylaws only allowed members of these two organization for leadership positions on the boards. The AMA and ACP have abused their leadership and have rewritten the bylaws to perpetuate a mission that was viewed initially as time-limited. But the generation of money (easy compensation) and control over the profession of medicine was too tempting for the medical industrial/surveillance complex, which obviously hijacked the medical specialty boards. All of them. Placing industry stooges with less that stellar integrity in key positions. This compromised the whole notion of public safety and tainted the leadership beyond anything the profession or public could imagine. PR and in house research to perpetuate the big lie, another scam to protect the crumbling images of the ABIM.
ABIM's love affair with big tobacco is testament of this corruption early on. (The ABMS advisory board was equally compromised in their mission of protecting the public from a public health menace such as cigarette/tobacco products and use.) They were not thinking of public safety in the 1960's but how to create and perpetuate money for themselves and their industry partners. That is the true story of the ABIM. They cannot shake these facts off no matter how they spin their history on their web pages.
The creation of the American Board of Family Practice (now ABFM) in 1969 and its fairly quick introduction of time-limited certifications (and conversion) in 1976 gives us some insight as to what they were thinking about at the ABMS. Money and oower, and lots of it. ABFM has accumulated tons of cash and investments as a result of their pilot MOC programs. The executives have profited by this new model. Government and industry penetration into this organization (and other quality assurance organizations) made it a harbinger of things to come. Their real estate investments, investments and other activities that executives engaged in (and handsomely profited by) needs investigation and scrutiny. The data collection that they engaged in only helped the industries and Wall Streets interest in decades of private insight provided to insiders. Some of the reasons (millions of them $$) for the name change that occurred less than two decades ago is partly to obscure online searches perhaps. This is also one very corrupt medical board. Changing their name does not change this fact.
MOC, with its billions of dollars of personal wealth generation and insider power brokering
is perhaps the largest "educational" Ponzi scheme ever devised with trillions of dollars at stake. The tax forms do not even list education as their activity. It is something else and so are these organizations, when scrutinized under a bright light.
I read the appeal. What is surprising and very concerning is why the original fully briefed complaint never made it to discovery in the first place.
Is the NBME's model airplane headed for a crash site near you?
What gives at the NBME? Who controls the board(s)? Physicians or the "industry".
Should not online virtual-exams be secondary to actual physical exams. Has "accelerated capture" taken root in the already lucrative and corrupted self-regulating "quality assurance industry"?
USMLE Step II: This nearly redundant exam (or so we thought), which was in the past mandated to ensure a standardized US physical exam for those who did not graduate from US medical schools, appears to be on the fast track for virtual approval.
Is this an all-too-obvious advertisement for tele-medicine? Well, it seems, now the NSMB's lucrative tests are headed for a cheaper model using the Boeing-style computerized wind tunnel. We know how that plane crashed with it's virtual heavy-handed design. What was once lucrative, before exapanding the mandate to include all graduates, has just become more lucrative. More bonuses and compensation increases for the "quality industry" executives.
Imagine. No bellies or chests to touch. No more subtle signals, from which to glean insight. No more feigned protests from the standardized patients (actors) for touching their chests. Or walking out of the room half-way through!
We know how that virtual computerized model worked out lately for Boeing going to virtual model airplanes that were too heavy to fly. Or you needed the upgraded software to be able to maneuver the grounded plane.
I think it's high time to ground the USMLE's lucrative STEP II model airplane. The accelerated moment is at hand.
"Abstract: Capture—the notion that a federal agency can become controlled by
the industry the agency is supposed to be regulating—is a fundamental concern
for administrative law scholars. Surprisingly, however, no thorough treatment of
how capture theory applies to the federal judiciary has been done. The few
scholars who have attempted to apply the insights of capture theory to federal
courts have generally concluded that the federal courts are insulated from capture concerns.
This Article challenges the notion that the federal courts cannot be captured. It
makes two primary arguments. As an initial matter, this Article makes the theoretical case that federal courts can be captured. Expanding upon the regulatory capture literature and what literature exists about the capture of courts, this
Article demonstrates that the institutional safeguards often thought to shield
judges from special interest influence (including political independence, lifetime tenure, and general jurisdiction) may, in some cases, break down, leaving
courts exposed to capture in much the same way as agencies.
Then, this Article turns to the application of the theoretical argument. It focuses on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the district that
until recently received the most patent cases of any district court in the country. The Eastern District of Texas exhibits many classic signs of capture, including a revolving door between the federal bench and law firms, the region’s economic dependence on litigation, and a mutually beneficial relationship between the plaintiffs’ bar and the Eastern District judges. In conclusion,
this Article urges Congress to tighten venue requirements and to mandate random assignment of judges. These proposals would better protect the U.S. federal courts from capture."
https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/bclr/vol59/iss5/2/
This law paper needs no comment for those familiar with the ABIM's apparent miraculous power they often have over court venue, which judges they get, and innapropriate ex-parte communications and sealed orders. Violations of constitutional rights.
Working physicians across the country have been sacrificing on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis of sorts bringing about winds of change upon which we all will ride. Understanding this change is important to all of us. It is like casting stones from a garden on a sea change of love and respect ad infinitum. Citizens now feel immense gratitude toward our courageous American heroes, fighting like soldiers going into battle against evil forces. But other evil forces exist in our midst, a deceptive web of lies since 1999, a travesty in the making. The time will shortly arrive to address physicians' concerns and needs through their organizations. People will be eager to assist physicians with issues in their organizations that plague their profession. Various people, including those in positions of powerful legal authority, will soon be incensed after reading sordid tales of how these good doctors have been abused, exploited, and exposed to organizations where they have no voice and are subjected to repetitive broken promises. Organizations that waste time, energy, and resources on ignoble pursuits. Organizations with an unbeholden story...
It's a tale of woe, tragic as hell, we'd rather not do it, but tell it we shall...
Once upon a time, there were corrupt organizations dictated by sanctimonious leaders and their cronies, cloistered above smugly inn ivory towers eager for their pound of flesh to absolve others of their sins again and again. Overlooking cemeteries with forgotten names where they'd meet to exchange profits for favors. Emollients to assuage the guilt time and time again like rivers flowing to the sea. Gazing down upon the teeming huddled masses in disdain and contempt for the faceless humankind beneath them. Aware of nothing but their own greed and desire for money and always eager to find cash in brown plastic bags under rocks in the park near the office to cinch the deal. Money disappearing into the ether like embers floating across the sea to foreign entities. Basking in the limelight they do not deserve and for which they are unworthy. Leaders holding positions of power to improve physicians' lives but instead selfishly and repeatedly choose to do the exact opposite. Greedy opportunists both judgemental and forgiving for a hefty price. Complicit to judge others, favor themselves above others, remove dedicated doctors from their careers and deprive sick and dying patients of doctors in order to enrich themselves with exorbitant revenues. Evildoers insidiously treating doctors like currency exchanged, bartered, and negotiated for a flat rate. Failed lives of free will that accept no responsibility for the consequences of their decisions or actions. Insidious perks of on the job treachery aligns with them all day, every day, of their sad, pathetic, hopeless, pointless, and worthless lives. Taken in with the trappings of life on earth to one day arrive at the proverbial floodgates of heaven speechless and cowering before Almighty God. Amen.
Part II. And, of course, we have all recently been painfully subjected to the whiny and spoiled droning about rules ad nauseum. Shameful essays composed of eloquent words communicating misleading ignoble half-truths, misanthropic lies, and derogatory disagreements. Patronizing attempts to quell a peaceful rebellion by dissenters of their own making. Embellishments of the truth to pacify the masses, like flocks coming to graze repeatedly at the trough for eternity then accept being fleeced at the door of shame when summoned for their scheduled appointment time by tyrannical rulers advancing their causes. Fingerprinted for posterity like criminals then data is stealthily collected as they placidly file by. Younger ones figuratively forced to swallow bitter pills to maintain the continued privilege of toiling for the masters. Later that night, the leaders lie in a bed with the other organizations like entwined lovers after a lavish dinner in a luxurious hotel on a plush oversized mattress overlooking the ocean on a moonlit night during a prearranged illicit rendezvous on a balmy tropical pacific island... but we digress. And perhaps most disgraceful, a scathing insult to the intelligence of their anonymous "lower level" colleagues whom they obviously believe not capable of perceiving reality. Let us all mourn the living trees needlessly sacrificed to print this tedious drivel. Please observe a moment of silence for those that died. Thank you.
Let's now review the iron rule as recently proposed by a very wise blog commenter. The iron rule is paraphrased as follows: "Racketeers and fraudsters shall be liable by the legal system for the restitution of their ill gotten gains to their many victims of extortion." It is now highly recommended that a comprehensive treatise detailing the iron rule be expeditiously published by leaders wistfully desiring to further wax poetic about "rules." Please include an informative section on doctor's anticipation of freedom from oppressive groups that swindle their money for products neither needed nor desired. Another section should focus on the hope that physicians will have more organizations that actually support them and care about their well being. Many doctors feel like virtual shells of their former selves, anesthetized and dead inside, and become discouraged awaiting help that NEVER ARRIVES. It is very hard to help patients when the doctors themselves are not feeling well. Doctors, and sadly now even medical students and residents, frequently ask the heavens for help since their organizations are less than useless and only add to their misery with their ongoing greed, rampant price gouging and stringent mind numbing rules dictated by their so called "leaders." And be rest assured, help is on the way! This treatise will be vastly more educational for all of us as the iron rule will surely be dictating the gradual resolution of this crisis and the eventual arrival of lawful and deserved karma.
Truth, liberty, and justice are important in a free society. We need more truth to fight the plague of injustices, which includes violatory acts, whicih the ABMS/ABIM has engaged in to maintain and expand their monopoly power. MOC is certainly one of the worst injustices inflicted on physicians. The profession of medicine has been denigrated by those who claim to be "of the profession and for the public". That is the ABIM's motto from its inception. Today they are neither of the profession nor for the public. They are for themselves and maintaining their MOC cash-cow cartel and testing/data collection monopoly.
MOC must end or we all lose
What I see happening in healthcare is frightening. We are losing doctors. Physicians have been set up to take a hit from every direction. Medical doctors have lost autonomy and the important patient-physician relationship has eroded beyond recognition. The deteriorating environment is due to highly conflicted outside pressures and a series of outright lies. The necessity of MOC is one of the big lies parading doctors over the cliff.
Physicians are being replaced rapidly by less-skilled surrogates whose accelerating compensation exceeds that of primary care physicians in select markets. Nurses can make more money on overtime than physicians who have no labor unions. Financial security is vital to all.
Strangely MOC is not required for surrogate providers such as NP's or PA's, nor is it required for grandfathered physicians. How can MOC be valid - vexing or otherwise - when the science is just not there to support the thesis. The only thing really vexing for the ABMS is how to keep their pay and bonuses going and growing every year. Executive compensation is going up along with the compensation packages of industries they serve. Inflationary pressures are devouring doctor's diminishing salaries in comparison.
Data collection and analysis along with machine learning and artificial intelligence are advancing and encroaching via the explosive high tech tele-medicine digital superhighway. AI is taking a deep dive into everyone's lives. AI may expand quickly eventually replacing much of the current system. This trend is being accelerated and taken advantage of in the current coronavirus crisis.
Physicians, relegated to becoming data-entry and download/upload clerks for the ABMS, its business partners and the medical industrial complex they serve, have been manipulated easily through mock educational Ponzi schemes like MOC - forced into submission. Taking the hits from every direction. Do MOC, they demand, or become ABMS/payor/employer punching bags faced with losing one's certification, livelihood and the sacred right to care for patients.
Being tested to death (ABMS MOC®) is a lever of control and means of cash collection being used consciously to manipulate and undermine the profession of medicine and the patient's right to care.
Supporting the lawsuits vocally and financially is vital to the survival of the profession of medicine.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/practicing-physicians-of-america
Why isn't this lawsuit using monopoly as the core reason. There are no other boards we can take. The ABIM is also reaching over states rights to dictate the physicians role.
ABIM and Partner Anexinet Pushing Big Wireless, AI and IoT (At what cost?)
"3. Healthcare
Intelligent connectivity will help provide a more effective preventive care at a more affordable cost while allowing healthcare managers to optimise the use of their resources. In addition, intelligent connectivity could also facilitate remote diagnosis and enable remote surgery, potentially revolutionising access to medical care that today is limited to the geographical location of medical experts.
Intelligent Connectivity - System architecture of the field trial conducted by NEC and NTT DOCOMO in Japan for remote medical examinations
USE CASE 1: Remote health monitoring and illness prevention. 5G’s high availability and its support of a massive number of connections is expected to help accelerate the adoption of wearable devices used for the monitoring of different biometric parameters of the wearer. As these
solutions become more commonplace, AI-based healthcare platforms will analyse the data collected from these devices to determine a patient’s current health status, provide tailored health recommendations and predict potential future issues. In addition, by having a more informed, real-time overview of the medical status of their patients, healthcare managers could optimise the use of their resources and make sure their clinics are always provided with enough medicine and medical tools
and equipment.
USE CASE 2: Remote diagnosis and medical operations. The tactile nature of intelligent connectivity internet applications enabled by the high speed, low-latency, and ultra-high reliability delivered by 5G networks, will enable doctors to provide a full medical examination from remote locations with full audio-visual and haptic feedback, making it possible to provide a diagnosis anywhere at any time. With 5G and IoT, it would even be possible for doctors to perform remote surgery by operating specialised robots."
Anexinet podcast prescriptions for the future
https://www.anexinet.com/blog/2020prescriptions/
Anexinet podcast link
https://iot-analytics.com/how-5g-ai-and-iot-enable-intelligent-connectivity/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-big-wireless-lobbied-governments-build-5g-citizen-data-collection-surveillance/5713129
What ABIM/ABMS isn't tell you! How many millions has ABIM paid Anexinet over the past decade? For what?
https://www.anexinet.com/blog/for-complex-data-center-transformation-abim-chooses-anexinet/
What Gives at ABIM? Data Storage and Other Services from Partner/Client Anexinet
Anexinet has revenue reported according to public online sources from 50 million to 100 million per year. (That may be a low ball figure.)
ABIM gave them 1.8 million in 2017/18. That would mean that ABIM provides close to 2 - 4% of
Anexinet's revenue.
With a horde of clients accumulated since inception something seems wrong with those numbers and the percentages for a testing company. What is ABIM paying for really?
I understand Anexinet provides cloud services to ABIM.
https://incfact.com/company/anexinet-bluebell-pa/
Aneixinete provides cloud coverage independently or through business partner Amazon Web Servives. (AWS)
https://www.anexinet.com/blog/anexinet-achieves-advanced-partner-status-in-the-amazon-web-services-network-for-designing-managing-and-migrating-customers-to-aws/
Who benefits?
Who does the ABIM serve? What does MOC accomplish for the ABMS, their associates and partners?
How is the ABIM benefiting from the Corona Virus crisis?
"Member Boards Support Physicians During COVID-19 While Task Forces Move Forward
The new Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a worldwide societal impact and placed the entire global health care community in a state of emergency. This unprecedented public health crisis has placed enormous strain on health care providers, who daily place their health and well-being in jeopardy to combat this deadly virus.
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and its Member Boards support the efforts of trainees and board certified physicians by offering programmatic flexibility with regard to examination scheduling, as well as offering relevant, up-to-date treatment and prevention information to all on the front line of this pandemic.
Each board has posted easily accessible information about their COVID-19 response and continues to monitor the pandemic’s progression to make further adjustments as needed. The rapid response and transparent communications of the boards serves to reinforce the commitment to respond to the greater physician community and address the recommendations outlined in the Vision for the Future Commission final report.
The four “Achieving the Vision” Task Forces continue their work with many of the physician volunteer members making an extraordinary effort to actively contribute while meeting the demands of being on the front line battling COVID-19. On May 1, the Chairs of the Advancing Practice, Professionalism, Remediation, and Information and Data Sharing Task Forces met virtually with the members of the American Medical Association Council on
Medical Education (Council). The meeting allowed the Task Force Chairs to share updates on their progress and receive feedback from Council members that will help inform and guide their work moving forward.
The Standards Task Force presented the most current version of their draft continuing certification standards at the May 4 virtual meeting with the ABMS Stakeholder Council. Comprised predominately of representatives from external stakeholder organizations as well as practicing physicians and public/patient advocates, the Stakeholder Council’s feedback is part of a greater commitment by ABMS and the Member Boards to actively
pursue input from a broad collective of external audiences. Despite the disruption and new demands faced by all due to the pandemic, the Standards Task Force remains on schedule at this time to meet its goal of opening a substantial public commentary in late 2020.
Please share this update with your colleagues and encourage them to engage with the process by subscribing to the Achieving the Vision updates. Be safe, protect yourself, your colleagues, and your family. And most importantly, if you are member of a health care team combating COVID-19, we thank you for your dedication, service, and selfless efforts on behalf of your patients and communities."
Is the digital tail wagging the dog? Any conflicts or relationships to report?
https://www.anexinet.com/guide-to-digital-healthcare/
https://www.anexinet.com/blog/patient-first-the-state-of-wearables-in-healthcare/
https://www.anexinet.com/blog/my-personal-journey-with-healthcare-mobility/
https://www.anexinet.com/resources/webinars/webinar-digital-is-transforming-healthcare/
https://www.anexinet.com/blog/tag/healthcare/
Mary Magdalene was summoned for the crucifixion and resurrection.
Why can't we be present, at least virtually, at all the ABMS Vision 2020 meetings? A transcript of all the meeting with an unedited video for our purview should be available to those who can't attend. All 900K plus physicians and any patients who have a stomach for it should be able to see how democracy and the vote are dead at the ABMS. If they don't put MOC meetings out in the open for all to see and participate in, then MOC is just another digital railroad shoved down our throats without serving any real purpose. (Except to pay the lucrative compensation and golden parachutes of those who created and maintain the Ponzi scheme called MOC/continuing certification/longitudinal assessment.
MOC is only required in the United States of America the land of the free and the home of the brace. Strangely, for those who don't know many of those who benefit from MOC financially are not even American companies at all such as Anglo-Dutch investment bankers, Pearson, LLC (Pearson Vue testing centers), Wolters Kluwer (UptoDate, etc.), Elsevier media/publishing, PwC Health, Offshore Hedge Fund Investors/Managers, GlaxoSmithKline, ABMS International, ABMS Singapore, and on and on. The conflicts of interst are astounding.
We should be able to witness all their investment and political enterprise that they conduct at our expense behind closed doors.
It's not like they are as corrupt as politicians? Right?
THEY ARE professional medical politicians!
How much influence does a stakeholder have in the "quality assurance cartel"?
That depends on how much you pay, which depends on how much cash and money a stakeholder generates.
Cartel "Membership" (This for informational purposes only and not an exhaustive list.)
"Who can apply for membership, how long does it take to be approved, and how much does it cost?
If you would like to become a member of NQF, please download and complete the application. Submission instructions are included in the application.
What is the approval process?
Interested applicants must complete the organizational membership application. Once you have submitted the application and supporting financial documentation, NQF will review them for final approval. Upon approval, you will be assigned to one of NQF’s eight Member Councils: Consumer, Health Plan, Provider Organization, Public/Community Health Agency, Purchaser, Quality Measurement Research and Improvement, Supplier and Industry, and Health Professionals. Primary contacts will be notified of the approval by email and will be sent an invoice for dues.
"How long does it take to be approved?
Once NQF has your completed membership application and supporting financial documentation, the membership approval process typically takes 10 business days. Primary contacts will be notified of membership approval via email.
How are dues determined?
Membership dues are determined by an organization’s operating expenses. Potential members must provide NQF with a copy of their annual report, audited financial statement, Public 990, or SEC filing. For local, state, or federal non-payer government entities, please report the total population served."
Are not the ABIM and ABMS medical specialty boards little more than "public safety" monopolists/racketeers defrauding physicians, patients, payors, and hospitals out of billions of dollars in fees and lost man-hours. The do so while rubbing salt on an open wound, hitting us all up again and again as taxpayers depriving us and government out of millions in federal, state and local income taxes every year.
Tax money and the exorbitant fees the ABMS mandates ("Your dollars or your livelihood!") does not grow on trees. When you distill it down the ABMS and their associates are in fact led by high-roller executives leading tax-dodging political and financial juggernauts, which are protected by amorphous umbrella "watchdog" organizations, high-powered attorneys, and a broken justice system.
Now as they (ABMS/ABIM "Foundation", etc.) hypocritically speak of "trust", "professionalism", and "physician well-being" (burnout, stress, suicide), which the MOC mandate contributes to, we can add incalculable harm to the scales of blind justice, where the quality cartel rides high and lives large at the expense and weight (suffering) of others.
Physicians are not the only ones who deserve their day in court, so does everyone else that the ABMS/ABIM/ACGME is defrauding and robbing blind with propaganda, outright lies, and cowardly digital ink put to (coercive take it or leave it) adhesion contracts.
What does ABMS MOC '"testing" have in common with Theranos "testing"? The parallels are striking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranos
ABIM's former Chair Bob Wachter and his infamous spidey sense were occluded and conflicted regarding the NQF scandal and again with the Theranos scandal. And completely conflicted working for IPC the Hosptialist as Chair of the Safety Board. And what was he thinking when he bought/approved the 2.3 million dollar condo for personal use. Was it a scandal? You bet!
https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/16/clinton-theranos-fundraiser/
Theranos and the ABMS/ABIM even duped/defrauded some of the same clients concerning their products and services.
https://mocportfolioprogram.org/about-us/portfolio-program-sponsors/
What is different. Theranos had oversight from the SEC. The ABIM/ABMS has no accountability whatsoever. Even the AMA gave the ABIM a free pass by not inisting on an independent auditor.
Part I. Astonishingly, there STILL persists sinister forces in our midst wreaking havoc and causing despair and hopelessness. Unbelievable. How much warning does a person or organization need? And these people are supposedly intelligent as they possess a significant amount of education and training. Do the simple words CEASE AND DESIST have no meaning for you? Really? What part of CEASE AND DESIST do you not understand? This is truly not a difficult concept to fathom people. It's pretty easy actually, once you get used to it. You need to be compliant with instructions. After all, you are doctors and you expect your patients to be compliant with instructions. In fact, these are SO much more simple than what patients have to grapple with on a regular basis, right?
Did you not see this coming after all this time? Did you honestly think it could last forever? If so, you are delusional and very wrong about a lot of things in general. The current pandemic and climate change are two signs that things are going horribly awry on earth. And now people are even rioting in the streets. But astoundingly, the current leaders are complicit to conduct business as usual to exude lies to maintain their status quo. Embellishments of the truth to pacify the masses. Frequently exuding words like "healthy regimen", "yoga", and "up to date medical knowledge" to disguise their nefarious activities and make their ubiquitous lies more palatable to the masses yearning to breathe free. Actually dying to breathe free. Actually, just plain dying from their oppression. Many citizens are in the depths of despair as a result of the current pandemic but these selfish leaders are STILL complicit to keep good and caring doctors from helping them in order to keep their money flowing like rivers to the seas again and again. Like spoiled children demanding candy when it is not yet Halloween.
Part II. Numerous people, including many of their own colleagues, die from suicides and overdoses but the leaders don't care and actually encourage it with their corrupt policies pandering to the masses and failure to help their members with anything. Do you honestly believe yoga is going to help your addicted and suicidal members? Really? It must be nice to know you are torturing and killing off your colleagues every day. Astonishments like watching your colleagues die and only caring about the votes you won't obtain from them. For some, you have been the DIRECT CAUSE of their deaths after you single-handedly ruined their careers. Careers for which they worked very hard and sacrificed a great deal. All their efforts were for naught, jus like the lives you cost them. That must be very satisfying for you pieces of dirt. How do you even live with yourselves and sleep at night, you pathetic losers of life? Do you have any conscience whatsoever? Newsflash, losers, killing off your colleagues is also a DIRECT VIOLATION of the Hippocratic oath. Congratulations leaders, you must feel very proud of yourselves every day for a job well done. Do you feel like you have won? At least YOU are alive, right? Wealthier too and able to enjoy your blood money. How can you call yourself a doctor in any sense of the word when you are actually a murderer? You should all hate yourselves every day that you have the audacity to call yourselves leaders and doctors but persist on murdering with abandon.
These leaders are losers in every sense of the word, trust us. Instead of being part of the solution, they are part of the problem. An ENORMOUS part of the profession's problem by the way of commission and omission. Trust us again. Now is the time to shape up or ship the hell out because you don't want to be around for the aftermath of the collapse. Trust us yet again. It won't be pretty because, remember, we can make an earthquake up in here. If you continue on this quid pro quo robbery endeavor, there will be a nolo contendere plea deal and fingerprinting for posterity like the convicted criminals you will be in the near future. At least in prison, the leaders won't be able to swindle other doctors for products neither needed nor desired and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief for awhile anyway. Probably in the future, other losers will rise up and figure out a way to torture doctors again. Must we all be subjected to the leaders' tedious blathering until we die too from their CARELESSNESS like our other poor colleagues? Leaders need the wherewithal to leave doctors alone once and for all. Leaders, there are ominous clouds on the horizon for you and your cronies. Beware of what you wish for in business, life and beyond because the result may be the exact opposite. The virtual uprising is coming so get out now before you are caught in the virtual crosshairs now and forever. Trust us for the final time. Amen.
Part III. These leaders are complacent to allow doctors to be slaves to computers, computing like their virtual selves in a factory. They do absolutely nothing to help them achieve independence from the computer, legal or otherwise. They are like evil slave masters allowing their underlings to toil under the hot sun of electronic servitude and bondage ad infinitum. Not allowed to breathe fresh air and rarely talking to patients. Forced to give patients the "bum's rush" of time to attend to the computer's needs instead. And ignoring their own needs too. Like going to the bathroom for instance. How ridiculous is it that doctors avoid going to the bathroom to attend to the computer's needs. But the leaders don't care. "Ha ha" they chuckle amongst themselves. "Let them wear adult diapers" they laughingly say to each other over dinner and drinks at the club. "We got ours" they say knowingly and give each other a little wink. "Let them eat cake" another says and they laugh again and again while patting each others backs. Their colleagues' suffering is an endless source of entertainment for the leaders. They can't get enough of it and it helps to lift the psychopaths' mood when their spirits are low. Insurance companies are another topic over which they bond. Prior authorizations, billing headaches, and malpractice carrier woes are a source of great joy for their fetid minds and putrid psyches aligned together for eternity. "Hospital privileges, who cares"? they scoff and dig back into their filet mignon with a glass of fine Merlot. Yes. Cows, doctors and patients all must die to satisfy the leaders' needs and endless desires.
Uncaring, indifferent and callous to their suffering. Enjoying their blood money while their underlings figuratively bleed dry and devoid of life and falsely believing they will never have to toil like them. Again, they are delusional because their toil is coming but in a prison cell if they don't get the hell out of their organizations. They are complacent to allow others to toil for them, gradually killing them off but assured there are always new workers coming up the pipeline. Fresh meat to bleed dry until the life is figuratively squeezed out of them too. What an ideal position to have ad infinitum! Until the end abruptly comes sooner than expected. MUCH sooner than expected. Their lives literally pilloried and entwined together forever and ever by Almighty God. Amen.
Is there a Part II?
Leave it to the ABMS to have one of their lucrative foundations put a spotlight on "trust" in the profession of medicine, when they are the worse kind of hypocrites alive today regarding abuses and violation of rights. Where are the protests and civil disobedience in regard to ABMS MOC mandates.
MOC is a knee to the neck and a gun to the head with its racketeering and restraint of trade. ABMS bullies talk about equity, equality and racism in one breath. I'm sick of it. Maybe they could just end MOC and stop the endless Orwellian doublespeak and end the practice of discrimination and reprehensible educational restraints placed on vulnerable physician populations whose livelihood depends on being certified by the ABMS monopoly.
Now is the time to stand up and be heard. Your country needs you. More people need to rise up to speak the truth. We need to stand up to these bullies and thugs. The legal fund needs donations.
Did you know the ABMS/ABIM hired an undisclosed felon to investigate and intimidate physicians. An ex-cop thrown off the police force for unspeakable abuses, violence and constitutional violations against the public. Just the perfect industrial strength hitman to engage in corporate bullying to maintain control of their captured clients - physicians.
ABMS BOD does not pose for photos anymore. Here's why. It is an exclusive elite membership. (Not inclusive.)
https://www.abms.org/news-events/abms-announces-new-board-of-directors-2014-2015/
https://www.abms.org/news-events/abms-announces-new-board-of-directors-2015-2016/
https://www.abms.org/news-events/abms-announces-new-board-of-directors-2016-2017/?cat=moc-stories
https://mocportfolioprogram.org/blog/abms-names-richard-e-hawkins-md-new-president-ceo/
Professional medical politician Rich Baron has been with the ABIM since 2001. Hiring thugs and leading legal teams to violate the rights of physicians went way beyond his job description as a board member, chair and treasurer. Why isn't this being investigated as we learn of victims who speak out, exercise their rights, and end up becoming the persecuted. Legal cases are re-examined for impropriety everyday. The ABIM and their attorneys are guilty imo of such abuses and violations of constitutional rights with persecution of doctors. Even exerting improper influence and abuse of power in tampering with the judicial system.
Lets' hope the harmed physicians do get their day in court in behalf of all physicians who must pay into the MOC Ponzi scheme.
Executive largess, obscene paydays, waste and hypocrisy at the ABMS medical boards
The tyranny of few undermined the will of the many. The ABIM has become a gangster organization with a CEO and execs collecting obscene compensation putting new meaning to the phrase "social disparities". ABIM is modeled after the capitalist gangster state spouting "equity" and "egalitarianism" for themselves, while customer service representatives working for the "Rich Baron" make a wage similar to an unemployment check. The CEO/BARON is the million dollar man sporting the four o'clock shadow lounging in his slippers working from home years before the Covid-19 crisis was conceived or Cayman Island investments were stashed away from ill-gotten MOC fees for his "secure" golden parachute.
With our trusted leaders, it's deja vu all over again. Astonishingly, the parasites STILL remain in our midst. Who would have known we had any blood left after the vampires have been feasting on us day and night for over the past twenty years. But we are unwittingly still alive. How much blood does one person really need? Are we not bled dry enough for you? Do you not care about us at all? Not even a little bit? Do you have any heart? Even the Grinch had a tiny little bitty heart but the leaders have none. Why must you continue this corrupt endeavor for the ages and torture us like the little Whos of Whoville, with dressings in the window to entice the Whos to buy their shoes, news, doos and clues. Remember the Whos? The sweet microscopic little cartoon characters resembling outfitted singing orange ducks holding hands in rings. Tortured by the Grinch for no real reason except he wanted to. He drove them qwakers just like our leaders drive us crackers for more money and time ad infinitum. Guess what? The little Whos of Whosville are us, people. And our leaders are worse than the Grinch because at least he had a little heart and they have none. They are sad, pathetic, hopeless, worthless and careless pieces of dirt. Each and every one is a loser and no better than the gum at the bottom of a shoe. Worse than gum at the bottom of a shoe. At least the gum can come off but the leaders stick like toxic glue for the ages. Never to dislodge until now. Right now.
Leave right now
Get off our shoes
Shoes of twos
Say the Whos
You leaders, ladies and gentlemen, are no better than the common criminals hanging out at the post office for fun ad games each night of the week to tell off Max the mail carrier dog. And the leaders are the Grinch stealing the presents from all of us but all the time. Year round, every year. Just like our leaders to torture us like the Grinch. They don't HAVE to. They just WANT to. They are doctors who can work like us but they don't feel like it or want to supplement their perceived "paltry" doctor's salary with exorbitant revenues.
The ABIM is full of blatant hypocrisy and egregiously conflicted financial relationships!
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