Did the AMA bow to Congressional pressure on pay-for-performance? Yes, according to these two memos:
By the end of 2007, physician groups will have developed performance measures to cover a majority of Medicare spending for physician services.
Here is a link to their previous stance.
Related posts:
- Dissent in the physicians’ lobby?
- Covering a virtual colonoscopy, or not, will test the cost-cutting will of Medicare
- Pay for performance unintended consequences
- Trusting Medicare
- Medicare ceases to pay for medical errors
- Multimorbidity, and why it’s difficult to care for complex medical patients
- Medicare and cutting health care costs
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All I hear is deafening silence regarding the crime perpetrated on the physician community by the AMA. Where’s the outrage that the AMA, behind closed doors, literally f–ked the doctors of this country, in cahoots with Congress? This is the same administration and Congress that is looking to cut our reimbursements 4% next year! I say the hell with them. As much as it pains me to say this, the only way Washington DC will listen is for us to stop seeing Medicare patients. As for the AMA, they need a regime change.
If one reads between the lines of the memo and working agreement, and has any knowledge of or experience with the staff or the procedures of the AMA, one can come to only a single conclusion – there simply wasn’t any choice here other than “signing on” to the process.
The federal government planned to impose SOMEONE’s idea of “pay for performance” on America’s doctors whether the AMA liked it or not, and, then dangled reversing the CLINTON ERA paycut as a way to persuade the AMA to participate in the process….
Just for the record, the 4% reduction in reimbursements for 2006 – which will reach 26% over the next several years – was NOT IMPOSED by the Bush administration, NOR was it passed by the current Congress. Think about who was running things in 1999 when all of this was imposed on America’s doctors….
The formula which is used to determine reimbursements was adopted in 1999, as part of Bill Clinton’s Balanced Budget Act. That the formula is flawed isn’t George Bush’s fault – it’s the fault of whoever was working within the Clinton administration to develop it.
EVERY YEAR SINCE, America’s doctors have been forced to fight to reverse the reduction the formula calls for….it sucks, but it wasn’t the AMA’s fault and it isn’t THIS administration’s fault…and believe me, America’s doctors did NOT want to tack another reimbursement reduction onto their bottom lines with their increased malpractice premiums…if the AMA hadn’t continued to work with Congress to reverse the reduction for this year, THEN YOU WOULD HEAR OUTRAGE and very loud accusations that the AMA had f—ed its members….
Funny thing about the AMA – only about half the doctors in America pay dues and even fewer than that actively participate, and yet whenever something bad happens to doctors, the AMA gets blamed by members and non-members alike. But whenever the AMA generates something POSITIVE for the family of medicine, EVERYONE is happy to take that benefit – members and NON-members alike. Because both the public and the lawmakers perceive that the AMA represents ALL doctors – and the board, staff and lobbyists keep that in mind ALL THE TIME…
Back to pay for performance for a moment – if anyone is going to work with the government to determine quality benchmarks for a pay for performance program, which IS COMING no matter what we do about it, isn’t it better that the AMA represent America’s doctors in developing the process?
Or would it be better for a couple of government bureaucrats with absolutely no personal knowledge of the reality of medical practice or quality assurance to pull numbers out of their ivory tower rear ends?
If the AMA was genuinely “in cahoots” behind closed doors with Congress, we’d have gotten a LOT more of what we wanted in the last couple of years.
And if anyone thinks that the only organization which is out there advocating for ALL doctors, not just those in a particular specialty, is in the business of f—ing doctors….well, all I have to say is join and find out….
It certainly doesn’t make us any MORE powerful to eat our own whenever there’s disagreement or frustration….
According to current press releases, Mr. Bush supports the upcoming 4% reduction in our reimbursement. Congress will bless us with P4P. Why did the AMA try to keep their signed deal with Congress secret? They admit it in the memo. What’s going on that we don’t know about?? And they made the WRONG choice in a “lose-lose” situation.
Let’s not miss the forest behind the trees. Fighting the public’s perception that there is room for improvement in health care quality is a losing proposition, both politically and economically.
Here are the details: P4P & Quality: NYT Rages On. AMA Goes Along.
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