| DJP Update 6-27-2010 Negative view of AMA by Wall Street Journal; “If Dr. Wilson is lucky, Congress will give his members another helping of gruel.”
I certainly agree with The Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing AMA’s approach to health system reform and the issue of the SGR. But once again, I will be repeating myself to give my opinion of the flaws in the AMA’s negotiating position. Read the DJP Updates of the past year. Suffice it to say that Congress should be told that doctors and patients have a right to be free of coercion and price-fixing. And remember, changing from the SGR price-fixing formula to another price-fixing formula with a Orwellian name is no win! Too many brave people died giving us liberty in America and we should not dishonor them and ourselves by genuflecting to power-brokers in Washington, DC. More “gruel”? That nails it. That is the impression of the world about AMA. And only AMA and the House of Delegates can change that impression. Be strong, have courage, be a leader! With every action, ask the question: Is this in the best interest of the patients AND DOES IT ALLOW THE DOCTORS TO REMAIN FREE AND THEIR PRACTICES VIABLE? If no doctors, no patient care. New AMA leadership in place. Let’s see the performance. Let’s see if AMA waits until after the November elections and thus lose more negotiating power. The 6 month “fix” of the SGR was not a random number. Remember, the folks in Congress do no heart transplants and no removal of blood clots from brains. Nor any of the other wonderful life-saving acts that doctors do every day. That is reality. Stop being a victim. Learn from failure. Thomas Edison did. Hard to be forgiving when an organization refuses to listen, learn, and change direction. Here is the article: —— The Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703615104575328761237843010.html?mod=rss_opinion_main REVIEW & OUTLOOK JUNE 26, 2010 A Beltway Public Service Stimulus III goes down. World cheers. EXCERPT: The night’s most conspicuous loser was the American Medical Association, the doctors lobby that endorsed ObamaCare as a quid pro quo for ending the Medicare price-control formula that automatically cuts physician payments every year. Democrats were game until they realized that ending this “sustainable growth rate” would add a quarter-trillion dollars to ObamaCare’s total cost and thus make it harder to pretend to reduce the deficit. Inexplicably, AMA president James Rohack accepted liberal blandishments and, in return for being played like a Stradivarius, his successor Cecil Wilson and doctors nationwide got a five-month patch plus a reversal of the 21.5% cut that kicked in June 1. Mrs. Pelosi then finally allowed a vote on this separate “doc fix” bill that the Senate passed a week ago but she had withheld from the floor as tax-extenders leverage. The cuts will be delayed until January, when they’ll hit 30% and if Dr. Wilson is lucky Congress will give his members another helping of gruel. Even to “pay for” this $6.4 billion doc fix, Democrats had to game the budget window via tweaks to pension-funding laws. Democrats have exhausted every “fiscal responsibility” trick in the book, except actual fiscal responsibility, which they inadvertently committed on Thursday. ——- Two of my tweets today at www.Twitter.com/DJPNEWS Failure discussed! How others- @WSJopinion – see #AMA and the #hcr & #SGR debacle http://tinyurl.com/33k9y8w 25 minutes ago via Echofon A tale of graft vs “donations” by excellent editorial writer @jarvisdeberrytp http://tinyurl.com/2449nfj #NOLA #church #S&WB about 6 hours ago via Echofon —- Stay well, Donald P.S. Stop by http://twitter.com/djpNEWS and sign up for DJPNEWS to get tweet alerts that may not make it into DJP Updates. Twitter is free and takes minutes to join. Put email in and pick password. Great source of breaking news and you don’t flood your email with it. You can get free app for BlackBerry or IPhone etc and you check on tweets when you want. Also, recent selected DJP Updates can be found at: http://www.donaldpalmisano.com/html/djp_update/ Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD This DJP Update goes to 2262 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends. |