Maintaining certification, maintaining a parasite

I was looking through the ABD website, and the "Resource list"  http://www.abderm.org/moc/moc_tools.pdf  they publish was amended on 10/15/15. 

Dr Score.com, the previous entity through which we were exhorted to get patient and peer surveys, (founded and run by Dr. Steven Feldman, Derm at Wake Forest) was notably absent. Instead, a new business, MedConcert® is what they now list as "approved", this whole section is now optional of course. I believe Dr Score was removed due to all of our protests as to the inappropriate, opaque, and crony relationship which may or may not exist between the Board and Dr. Feldman. 

Of course, this now opens another argument, how was MedConcert® chosen, and why. 

I believe that all dermatologists who were forced into buying the DrScore product need to be refunded that cost due to the inappropriate and racketeering nature of the exercise. I can dream, right?

Medconcert ®

				Medconcert ® MedConcert is the healthcare industry's first multi-tenant, cloud-based platform designed to connect and align all stakeholders in a meaningful way to cost-effectiv...
				View on www.medconcert.com	Preview by Yahoo

Here's the new  link through MedConnect®, a "social platform blah blah blah", "data collection" and "stakeholders" in the same paragraph --guaranteed to give you a migraine!

I received a nice letter from the FL attorney General that it isn't in their jurisdiction to address federal issues, that this doesn't pertain to the state. They listed the FL Congressional Representatives to contact. So now we need to contact Congress, another migraine...but I will write a new letter to my Congressional rep --Curtis Clawson (R) and senator Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R). It can't hurt. I urge you all to do the same in your districts/states. They want to tie MOC to Medicare payment, probably licensure in the future. There's information to show this is ginning up at the federal level. 

The ABMS was found to have donated and lobbied heavily for MOC to be inserted into the HR-2 bill last year. ABD, as a member of ABMS, is guilty as well. 

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/30a32513ae04f5445c95f3239/files/20130612_cl_energyandcommerce_sgr.pdf

Here's a sample letter from last years' MACRA push from DrWes' blog  Dr. Wes: Doctors: If You Hate MOC, Write To Your Senator Today

				Dr. Wes: Doctors: If You Hate MOC, Write To Your Senator... There is nothing that has unified U.S. physicians more than their distain for the American Board of Medical Specialties' (ABMS) unproven Maintenance of Certificatio...
				View on drwes.blogspot.com	Preview by Yahoo

Dear Senator ________________,

As a practicing physician in the state of _______, I respectfully request that you vote “no” to the upcoming Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (H.R. 2) that amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to repeal the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR). 

One argument for this bill is that it would repeal the flawed SGR and combine quality reporting programs to reward clinicians for improved patient outcomes.  However, several physician reporting registries within the bill are under investigation for anti-trust violations, tax fraud, misappropriation of physician testing fees, and use of fees to influence legislation thereby violating IRS rules for non-profit tax exempt status.  I encourage you to take another look and choose to defeat this highly flawed bill that will have a pernicious effect on the credibility of the legislation, practicing physician retention and patient access to health care.

There are several problems with this bill:

1. The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, operates a proprietary Maintenance of Certification™ (MOC) program on behalf of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), portions of which are used in the bill. An antitrust suit is pending in federal court against both organizations (Civil Action No: 3:13-cv-2609-PGS-LHG). Additionally, the legitimacy of the ABIM’s MOC program has been called into question because of improper tax filings, questionable accounting practices, and funneling $30.6 million in physician testing fees to a separate non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (the “ABIM Foundation”) operated by the same leadership.

2. Because many parts of the flawed MOC program are distributed throughout H.R. 2 as physician reporting measures, the credibility of this legislation will be called into question if the charges against the ABIM are substantiated.

 

3. In the same way that Democrats were held responsible for the shortcomings of the ACA in the last election, this Senate will be held responsible when physicians refuse to participate in corrupt value-based incentives that enrich constituents at the expense of actual patient care.

 

4. I strongly encourage you to vote “No” on H.R. 2 and instead ask the Justice Department to investigate the ABIM/ABMS Maintenance of Certification program’s legitimacy as a provider of a value-based registry to the US government as part of H.R. 2 given these recent revelations.

Sincerely,

(your name, address and contact info)

Reference: 

http://drwes.blogspot.com/2015/04/newsweek-takes-on-moc-certified-medical.html

I called both my senators last spring right before this vote, and it did nothing. Bill Nelson voted for it, Marco Rubio voted against it, as did Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and 5 others. The AMA was all for it, and now they're crying. I'm done with electing others to fight--AAD Advocacy, where are you? Phoning it in. 

Our little grains of sand may help to fill the bucket. It's the only way.

Fighting Obamacare

Message body

I decided that I'm not going to preach to the choir. I'm going to write and exhort 
opposition, liberal, democrats who voted for Obamacare to wake up. 
Here is my letter to Sen. Schumer---

Dear Sen. Schumer,

I appreciate your response and your efforts on this subject. I want to reiterate that 
big thinking, "outside the box" is required to attempt to fix the monstrosity 
that is Obamacare. We must call upon courage and honesty to free the country 
from this madness that is engulfing it.

Billions of taxpayer funds have evaporated in the co-ops around the nation 
that have declared insolvency in the past year. 

ObamaCare’s Cascading Co-op Failures

				ObamaCare’s Cascading Co-op Failures In The Wall Street Journal, Rep. Adrian Smith writes about ObamaCare’s regional co-op flops and says more than 500,000 people have lost coverage as many plans c...
				View on www.wsj.com	Preview by Yahoo

Obamacare Co-Ops Are Failing at a Rate of 50 Percent. Here's Why.

				Obamacare Co-Ops Are Failing at a Rate of 50 Percent. He... Obamacare co-ops are falling like dominos.
				View on dailysignal.com	Preview by Yahoo

The swelling in the # of enrollees is due in large part to improved recruitment/ sign ups 
for Medicaid. This doesn't address the middle class, the young singletons, working 
and trying to pay college loans, who simply can't afford this, and neither can their 
unemployed parents. 

In the current healthcare exchange for 2016 for Florida, all the plans listed are HMO's 
---extremely restricted networks and higher and higher deductibles. The plans are very 
expensive--the true costs hidden from those who can snag a subsidy-- only to then 
have high deductibles whack the consumer at the time they are ill. The consumer 
doesn't know this until they use it. Then they use it and start to scream, probably at 
you most of all ("you" meaning the government!). 

The Healthcare system wasn't broken, the finest doctors, the most cutting edge 
procedures, chemotherapies, techniques for curing cancer, etc you name it ---and 
the United States is the envy of the world when in it comes to medical care. 

The HEALTH INSURANCE AND PAYMENT system was, and is still, actually quite worse. 
Choices have been eliminated, large insurance mergers threaten competition, and 
prices have skyrocketed, with the result that people are going WITHOUT insurance. I
n fact, the current administration in D.C. admits 9 million people have signed up on 
the exchanges. Weren't there 30 million uninsured people 5 years ago? 
Where are they now? 

I'll share with you that in my office I see the tragic results of postponed and delayed 
care because people cannot afford the deductible hit, up to $12,000 for a family, 
even if they have an HSA. I tell patients up front what their fees will be, in an effort 
to be transparent and help them in their budget decision making. It isn't enough, 
and my part stops there, and starts allover again at the Pharmacy. The prices of 
drugs have skyrocketed and the drug shortages continue to plague us--there's 
a shortage of normal saline, for example. 

Saline Solution Shortages Drove Non-Sterile Intravenous Fluid Debacle

				Saline Solution Shortages Drove Non-Sterile Intravenous ... The drug shortage issue has been the quiet snake in the grass of the health care industry. Even intravenous saline products have been in short supply. Non-sterile
				View on www.forbes.com	Preview by Yahoo

Why? Because government restrictions and controls drive prices up while 
producing scarcity. In every nation around the world where the government 
controls the healthcare sector, the quality of medicine, medical care, and the 
ability to prolong life has been attacked. We are on the same path in the USA. 

The patient must be free to pay for a plan that insures what they want insured. 
Just like your car. You're a man, and you don't want maternity and infertility insurance? 
You do want cancer and in patient hospitalization covered? OK, a la carte purchasing 
power must be allowed. If I go to a gym and I have shown that I am taking care of my 
health, shouldn't I be incentivized, just like Allstate incentivizes its good drivers? 
Why am I to pay for the uninsured in Bed 2C? Why do the healthy need to pay for the 
decisions of the unhealthy? Why are we individually paying for the health consequences 
of the smokers and drinkers? Tough questions which need to be asked, and debated, 
at the highest levels. 

Washington needs to repeal PPACA, COBRA and EMTALA, and deregulate the health 
care insurance marketplace. If I want to buy a plan from Kansas that insures 
non smoking women, why can't I buy that? 

Why must the government institute price controls to hospitals and pharmacies? 
Why can't doctors build hospitals, only corporate entities that care about the filling 
of beds...can a baker open a bakery? Yes. Doctors lack freedom to do the same 
in the United States. 

This needs to be discussed MUCH MORE THAN IT HAS BEEN. Mrs. Pelosi's statement 
that we have to pass it to find out what's in it, is an insult and a rebuke to hard working 
and liberty loving Americans in her nation. I am disgusted at the methods used to ram 
this bill through, but now we must face it and dismantle it before it dismantles us. 
This is very real, and much work needs to be done.