Comments on: AMA: A look at the facts on health reform

By: GameChangers » Blog Archive » Creativity in Business Conference - Oct. 4, Washington D.C.

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:50:58 +0000

[...] the providers themselves want reform, you know something is screwy with the current system. Yet so many people are afraid of change. [...]

By: Doctor's Spouse

Doctor's Spouse — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:22:51 +0000

I applaud “Primary Care Internist” points. I have thought the same thing – how can the President get away with making such misleading statements about physicians? He portrays them as money grubbing people.
Obama also used the example that two different doctors will order the same set of tests for a specific patient because they don’t share records. That is also untrue. Even without access to electronic medical records, doctors share test results – ESPECIALLY when the patient speaks up and says, “I’ve already had that test.”
I agree that health insurance reform is needed. And I’d love to see everyone have health insurance. But there are lots of ideas for sensible reform that are not reflected in HR 3200. The AMA says that they want to achieve reform by protecting the sacred physician-patient relationship without interference by insurance companies or the government. I don’t see how HR 3200 supports that objective.
Currently, my husband, who is a physician has the freedom to choose which insurance plans he accepts (including Medicare). If HR 3200 is approved – looking 5 steps down the road – my prediction is that that freedom will no longer be there.

By: Robert Ricketson

Robert Ricketson — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:58:30 +0000

Just thought I’d post this. I “copy and pasted” this directly from the Committe on Appropriations. Summary:American Recovery and Reinvestment website.
“Lower Healthcare Costs: To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our healthcare system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce healthcare costs by billions of dollars each year.
•
$19 billion for health information technology to prevent medical mistakes, provide better care to patients and introduce cost-saving efficiencies.
•
$2 billion to provide for preventative care and to evaluate the most effective healthcare treatments.”
The bulk of the Health Care package, in reality, is designed to reduce payouts by increasing “healthcare technology” to the tune of 19 billion dollars. Note the 2 billion dollars to “evaluate the most effective healthcare treatments”. What is the patient reponds to something else and not the “most effecive treatment”? Will that be paid for?
Food for thought. In the State of Texas, there is movement to change the word complication to “medical error”. Good for tort. No payment if a “medical error” occurs. Some listed examples are: UTI after foley catheter placement (no kidding); PE after hip replacement (50% of post op patients scanned have some evidence of DVT), wound infection (any) following TKA, CABG; the list went on.
Library of Congess, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Do use this link: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:8:./temp/~c1113hQwkS::
Sorry this was long winded. This way you can read what most of our elected officials failed to do.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:07:49 +0000

Why would the AMA say that when it backs the President’s position. Along with the pharmaceutical industry.

By: Primary Care Internist

Primary Care Internist — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:27:17 +0000

Thanks for the responses, Kevin & AMA speechwriters. But these kinds of wishy-washy nonresponses are exactly what I’m talking about. How hard is it for someone with a pulpit (ie. Dr. Rohack) to go on CNN and say “President Obama, your recent statements were wrong and frankly insulting to the professionalism of hard-working doctors, and here is why…”

In fact, Rohack WAS on cnn recently, talking health reform with other non-practicing celebrity physicians Sanjay Gupta, Michael Roizen “chief wellness officer”, and politician Bill Frist – hardly a collection of doctors representative of those dealing with real patient care issues – how disappointing.

Thanks,
Kumud B. Jindal, MD, MPH

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:07:44 +0000

The following responses were forward to me from the American Medical Association.

Response to questions from “Doc99″
– An AMA-supported provision of the House bill passed by the Energy and Commerce committee says that physicians can negotiate payment rates in the public option, but the bill does not address whether negotiations would be collective or individual. Participation is also voluntary for physicians.

– New medical liability provisions in the bill encourage the states to explore alternatives to the costly liability system through reforms that ensure court cases have merit and that allow providers to quickly compensate patients without litigation (i.e. certificate of merit and early offer).

Response to question from “Primary Care Internist”
- The AMA contacted White House staff this week to again express strong concerns with some recent medical treatment examples used by President Obama. We’ve made it clear that physicians are extremely dedicated and focused—first, foremost and always—on providing care that best serves their patients.

We agree with President Obama on the importance of prevention. However, a recent example used to illustrate his important point was misleading. Surgeons are not paid $30,000 to $50,000 to amputate a diabetic’s foot. Medicare pays a surgeon, on average, from $541.72 to $708.71 for one of two procedures involving a foot amputation. It is possible that the total bill, hospital stay, rehabilitation, prosthesis, etc. may approach the larger amount mentioned.

In the case of tonsillectomies, a patient is referred to a surgeon after medication therapy has proven to be ineffective. Actually, the medical profession itself recognized questions about utilization and appropriateness of tonsillectomies and took action by developing clinical guidelines, which has resulted in a sharp decline in the rate of tonsillectomies.

These types of examples create the impression that physicians are motivated by payment levels rather than what is best for patients. The AMA will continue to stress to our elected leaders that physicians are dedicated to putting patients first and optimizing health care quality.

You can learn more about the AMA’s advocacy for physicians by signing up to directly receive the AMA’s Health System Reform Bulletin at http://www.ama-assn.org

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:58:46 +0000

How does one “negotiate” with an entity that does not have to worry about profit, and has a limitless supply of money? Short answer: you don’t. The idea that there will be any “negotiation” is a foolish one.

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:49:49 +0000

Any new health care plan(s) must include negotiated rates and not dictated/assigned fees. Medicare is broke in many ways, but some specialties are severely penalized with the ridiculously low reimbursement rates, that keep getting lower.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:45:08 +0000

Here’s an interesting fact on health care reform:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081301914.html

“Separately, a coalition of groups backing Obama’s proposals launched a $12 million TV ad campaign Thursday, pitching health insurance reform in states where centrist Democratic House members or senators are under pressure on the issue. The campaign is intended to serve as a counterweight to critics who have shouted down Democratic lawmakers at town hall meetings, encounters that have received heavy news coverage.

The coalition distributing the ads, Americans for Stable Quality Care, is funded largely by the pharmaceutical industry and includes the American Medical Association; Families USA; the Federation of American Hospitals; the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA; and the Service Employees International Union. PhRMA has promised to contribute as much as $150 million for advertising and grass-roots activity to help pass Obama’s health-care reform package.”

By: Informed Patient

Informed Patient — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:38:26 +0000

As a patient who continually seeks out good information on health care, I found this post and the AMA website material on healthcare reform decidedly unhelpful. Lots of generic bullet points that everyone but Betsy McCaughey could agree upon.

Physicians can be a key part of the solution to provide more efficient and effective care and eliminate the myriad pressures that make using and working within our healthcare system like shopping in a Walmart.

I haven’t seen evidence that the AMA is doing that, although there is encouraging news coming out of many practice centers throughout the country: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/opinion/13gawande.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp