DJP Update 6-18-2011 AMA Annual Meeting & media alert
AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago started today. See my updates today at AMA in tweets at: www.twitter.com/DJPNEWS
Also follow tweets from all, delegates and reporters, who place #AMAmtg in tweets. Use search engine in your Twitter software and put in #AMAmtg and all tweets will show up.
Media Alert
Will be on national Fox and Friends in morning, Sunday, at 6:45 a.m. Central (7:45 a.m. Eastern) and again on Monday at 6:15 a.m. Central (7:15 a.m. Eastern)
Will be live beamed by satellite to New York from Chicago Fox studio.
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2334 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
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DJP Update 6-12-2011 AMA Annual Meeting; George Will article re PPACA & IPAB; Oral arguments Appeals Ct Florida v. HHS June 8, 2011
OSMAP (state med society presidents past, present, and president-elect) meeting is on June 17 and AMA Annual Meeting June 18-22. Both at Hyatt on Wacker in Chicago.
For those not attending the meeting in Chicago, watch for tweets that give updates. I believe the tweet hash mark will be #AMAmtg
So if you put into the “Find” search of your Twitter program, you will get any tweet that contains #AMAmtg as soon as tweeted by someone. Twitter is an amazing way to stay current on news. And tweets are limited to 140 characters.
When I was a young boy, I was sent to St. Paul’s College boarding school in Covington, La. across Lake Pontchartrain because we lived a couple of blocks from a public housing project and gang activity was beginning. The gang was trying to recruit young kids. That began my transfer to a boarding school despite the school not having the grade I was scheduled to enter, the 3rd grade. Dad convinced the principal to put me in 4th grade!
My point in telling that story is to relate that there was a nearby park that bordered on the Bogue Falaya River. The first time I was allowed to visit the park, I was impressed with the sign at the entrance:
Let it not be said and to your shame, that all was beauty here before you came.
I have reflected on that statement many times since the 4th grade. I do believe it is appropriate for us in Medicine now as we reflect on medical care in America, the best medical care the world has ever seen. I am concerned that the wrong approach to fixing the problems in medical care financing will cause us to reflect later that the beauty of the great medical advances here was destroyed by central control of medicine by government. We will deserve the shame heaped upon our generation if we did not do our homework, if we do not have courage, and if we give up too soon. I am afraid PPACA, IPAB, and all of the other choking tentacles of PPACA will lead us to a medical system of rationing and destruction of the patients’ right to make their own decisions with the advice of the trusted personal physician.
So let’s have the final debate on this onerous law at this AMA meeting. On the items we all (almost all) can agree on, such as removing IPAB, let’s us send a strong message that it must be eliminated. Then let’s get to the individual mandate and the rest of PPACA. Let’s have a game plan to get the right to balance-bill in Medicare, strong AMA policy, into the law.
Failure to do this will be an admission that our meeting is only a debating society, interesting for some, but devoid of any practical significance. And yes, a strong stand on the principles that made Medicine great might well stop the bleeding of membership which is on a dangerous downhill slope.
Restore Liberty! I have been the spokesperson regarding Medicine in America over the years for many groups, but my message always has been the same: Get government out of Medicine; avoid coercion, and learn from the failures of socialized medicine world-wide. I just reviewed my testimony to the health subcommittee of U.S. Congress Ways and Means Committee in 1976. The hearing was on “National Health Insurance.” I said then, on behalf of the Orleans Parish Medical Society,
EXCERPT:
“We are opposed to any national health insurance scheme. So that my message may be clear, I repeat, we are opposed to any form of socialized medicine. National health insurance results in rationed care of a lower quality. National health insurance costs more. Remember you get nothing for nothing. The public always pays in the form of increased taxes. The trusted doctor-patient relationship can only exist in a system where patients and doctors can have freedom of choice through the selection of each other.”
Shortly after that portion of the testimony, I quoted Dr. Robert Sade, who in recent years became the Chair of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA):
Under the leadership of such men as Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, the concept of man as being sovereign unto himself, rather than a subdivision of the sovereignty of a king, emperor, or state, was incorporated into the formal structure of government for the first time. Protection of the lives and property of individual citizens was the salient characteristic of the Constitution of 1787.”
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As always, coercion has no place in America. We are a nation built on liberty and freedom.
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For those who skip the tweets or who are confused by format, don’t fail to go to these two links:
Oral arguments in mp3 audio format re PPACA Florida et al suit on appeal: dld.bz/aaYvA
If link doesn’t work, go to these two links for
Arguments to dismiss:
Arguments on the merits:
Florida v. HHS: Oral Arguments on Appeal (June 8, 2011). Counsel from both sides present oral arguments to a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, consisting of Judges Joel Dubina, Frank Hull, and Stanley Marcus. [Arguments for motion to dismiss: 91 mins, MP3 | Arguments on the merits: 55 mins, MP3]
Retweeted by DJPNEWS – Great references re PPACA plus the ORAL ARGUMENTS. Listen to them yourself; don’t rely on talking heads on TV or radio; link: dld.bz/aaYvA
“The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands. … The power of the legislative, being derived from the people … (is) only to make laws, and not to make legislators.”
— John Locke
“Second Treatise of Government”
WASHINGTON — Here, however, is a paradox of sovereignty: The sovereign people, possessing the right to be governed as they choose, might find the exercise of that right tiresome, and so might choose to be governed in perpetuity by a despot they cannot subsequently remove. Congress did something like that in passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
The point of PPACA is cost containment. This supposedly depends on the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, which is a perfect expression of the progressive mind, is to be composed of 15 presidential appointees empowered to reduce Medicare spending — which is 13 percent of federal spending — to certain stipulated targets. IPAB is to do this by making “proposals” or “recommendations” to limit costs by limiting reimbursements to doctors. This, inevitably, will limit available treatments — and access to care when physicians leave the Medicare system.
The PPACA repeatedly refers to any IPAB proposal as a “legislative proposal,” and speaks of “the legislation introduced” by the IPAB. Each proposal automatically becomes law unless Congress passes — with a three-fifths supermajority required in the Senate — a measure cutting medical spending as much as the IPAB proposal would.
This is a travesty of constitutional lawmaking: An executive branch agency makes laws unless Congress enacts legislation to achieve the executive agency’s aim.
And it gets worse. Any resolution to abolish the IPAB must pass both houses of Congress. And no such resolution can be introduced before 2017 or after Feb. 1, 2017, and must be enacted by Aug. 15 of that year. And if passed, it cannot take effect until 2020. Defenders of all this audaciously call it a “fast track” process for considering termination of IPAB. It is, however, transparently designed to permanently entrench IPAB — never mind the principle that one Congress cannot by statute bind another Congress from altering that statute.
That principle may cause courts to dismiss the challenge by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute to Congress’ delegation of its powers, because courts may say Congress can just change its mind. Hence the court may spurn the institute’s argument on behalf of two Arizona congressmen, Jeff Flake and Trent Franks, that the entrenchment of the IPAB seriously burdens the legislators’ First Amendment rights.
Diane Cohen, the institute’s senior attorney, demonstrates that the IPAB is doubly anti-constitutional. It derogates the powers of Congress. And it ignores the principle of separation of powers: It is an executive agency, its members appointed by the president, exercising legislative powers over which neither Congress nor the judiciary can exercise proper control.
Unfortunately, the IPAB may not be unconstitutional. This is because the Supreme Court, having slight interest in policing Congress’ incontinent desire to give to others the power to make difficult decisions, has become excessively permissive about delegation. Cohen notes this from Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent in a 1989 case wherein the Supreme Court affirmed the power of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to set “guidelines” that, being binding, have the effect of statutes:
“I anticipate that Congress will find delegation of its lawmaking powers much more attractive in the future. … I foresee all manner of ‘expert’ bodies, insulated from the political process, to which Congress will delegate various portions of its lawmaking responsibility. How tempting to create an expert Medical Commission … to dispose of such thorny, ‘no-win’ political issues as the withholding of life-support systems in federally funded hospitals.”
The Supreme Court said the legislative power of Congress does not include the power to delegate legislative authority to an executive agency without “intelligible principles” to constrain such authority. The only principle — if such it can be called — constraining the IPAB is that its mission is to cut medical costs as it sees fit.
The Goldwater Institute’s challenge to the IPAB serves the high purpose of highlighting some of Obamacare’s most grotesque provisions, which radiate distrust of the public and its elected representatives. The essence of progressivism, and of the administrative state that is progressivism’s project, is this doctrine: Modern society is too complex for popular sovereignty, so government of, by and for supposedly disinterested experts must not perish from the earth.
George Will’s email address
is georgewill@washpost.com.
WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP
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Stay well and travel with care.
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2318 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating “Join DJP Update”
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DJP Update 6-8-2011 Media alert radio interview in morning re PPACA challenge Fed 11th Circuit & other recent tweets including R.I.P. Bud Lomell D-Day Ranger hero
KTRH radio 740 Houston in morn 6:20 a.m. Central with Lana & JP re #PPACA#hcr challenge Fed 11th Circuit http://www.ktrh.com
And a sad note about the death of Pointe du Hoc hero Leonard “Bud” Lomell. Plus other D-Day info. See tweets.
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2318 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating “Join DJP Update”
To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.
Comments Off on DJP Update 6-8-2011 Media alert radio interview in morning re PPACA challenge Fed 11th Circuit & other recent tweets including R.I.P. Bud Lomell D-Day Ranger hero
Former American Medical Assocation president Donald Palmisano, M.D., knows a thing or two about leadership, and the updated and amplified version of his book could not be more appropriate for our times. On Leadership: Essential Principles for Business, Political and Personal Success serves as an indispensible guide with lessons from successful leaders whose decisions have a sweeping impact on nations and from those whose decisions save a single life.
The book is a mixture of true stories, including some of the author’s own, that exemplify the essential characteristics of a leader: courage, persistence, decisiveness, communication, creativity, and doing your homework.
We can only conclude that the outcome of Obamacare would have been very different had Dr. Palmisano still been in charge of the AMA when it gave its support to that legislation at a crucial time in return for . . . nothing, really.
This law will be terrible for physicians and worse for patients. Sixty percent of physicians said the new law will force them to stop serving or restrict services to certain categories of patients, especially in Medicare and Medicaid, and an alarming number of doctors are planning to leave the practice of medicine as soon as they can.
The experienced and invaluable leadership in the medical profession will be lost as physicians are forced to turn over more and more of their authority to government officials dictating the practice of medicine. Most say they will leave medicine rather than subject their patients to medical decisions made by bureaucrats rather than physicians.
Dr. Palmisano, a practicing physician in New Orleans, gives an example of why medical care in America has been the best in the world, and why we want experienced and decisive doctors in charge.
In his chapter on persistence, he quotes Winston Churchill from the dark days of World War II saying, “Never give in — never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, give in.”
Dr. Palmisano reports on working with another surgeon to try to save a 23-year-old man badly injured in an automobile accident. After significant ER intervention, the patient’s heart stopped beating. Let him tell the story:
External cardiac compression was done, but it did not restore the heartbeat. The anesthesiologist shook his head and said, “There is nothing more we can do. We must pronounce him dead.”
At that moment, I refused to believe that this young man was dead. Everything that was supposed to be done was done. I pulled back the drapes covering the patient’s chest, splashed antiseptic on his chest and cut it open. I reached for his lifeless heart and began to squeeze it between my hands. I told the anesthesiologist to keep squeezing the breathing bag filled with oxygen. I could not leave the room without saying to myself that EVERYTHING possible had been done. Suddenly, between squeezes on the heart, I felt it start beating!
The patient recovered and went on to become an accomplished engineer, sending post cards to Dr. Palmisano from all over the world.
Persistence pays off.
Dr. Palmisano and the many stories he reports will inspire you and give you hope for America, from courageous and persistent politicians like Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Marco Rubio to examples of failures in leadership by “Brownie” during Hurricane Katrina. The book is a wealth of life lessons from Dr. Palmisano’s extensive experience — from public speaking and debate prep to his love of technology and how it can extend our expertise.
Each chapter ends with lessons learned. The lessons in the concluding chapter about “Emerging leaders in a time of crisis” seem most relevant: “It’s time for a new generation of leaders,” he declares, and he believes that the American people are ready.
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LAGNIAPPE: Congratulations to Texas for passing Loser Pays legislation that started as HB 274. Read the text of the law at:
Note reasonable attorney fees. Also note that it applies only to claims that do not exceed $100,000 in damages.
This is an important bill, but keep in mind that a plaintiff can claim the damages are more than $100,000 by saying the “pain and suffering” non-economic damages alone are more than $100,000.
Will be interesting to see how the plaintiff bar tries to get around the law.
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Stay well and have a great weekend.
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2330 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating “Join DJP Update”
To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.
DJP Update 6-2-2011 evening edition: AMA Annual Meeting and resolutions – Keep your eyes on PPACA and individual mandate; consider definition of Liberty.
Government wants to pay for quality and not quantity, according to the advocates for PPACA. But the question I would like an answer to is: Who determines the quality? Will it be the patient armed with transparency and scientific information from readily accessible scientific experts and selecting the doctor the patient wants? Or will it be some panel appointed by the Executive Branch or Congress? Consider this for a moment. You have heard of the Medicare money penalty for readmissions to the hospital in the latest government plans. But how does that measure quality? With a monetary incentive not to admit the patient, who will track the patients who die because of failure to admit back into the hospital? Where is that monitored? Will there be lots of unintended consequences of the new law? I believe so.
Below is an article about the view of the MGMA regarding ACOs. ACOs are just one part of PPACA. The more the regulations come forth, the more are the problems. And wait until the world sees IPAB in action. I don’t think the history books will determine it to be just advisory. All of these issues are government central planning at its best.
The AMA Annual Meeting is coming up this month in Chicago. Regardless of decreasing AMA membership, perhaps less than 20% of practicing physicians, (I will be interested in the final tally) the fact remains that all of the state medical associations and the specialties are represented in the AMA House of Delegates. Make no mistake, the big debate will be on the new health care law, PPACA. There are competing resolutions for and against. The individual mandate is another subset that will be debated with great emotion. Visit the AMA Website if you are a member of AMA and review these resolutions. Be sure to read resolutions 109 advocating “Rescind” individual mandate, as well as others supporting the individual mandate, Res 114 and Res 102. There are others for you to review that give different views on the issue.
Don’t fail to read CMS Report 9 in Reference Committee A entitled “Covering the Uninsured and Individual Responsibility”
I find it interesting that the report states the individual responsibility requirement (DJP comment: of course this means individual mandate) “preserves individual liberty”.
EXCERPT from page 8 of CMS Report 9
DJP Comment: I disagree that the individual mandate preserves individual liberty.
As you have heard me say, at the microphone and in my writings, LIBERTY, by definition, is the absence of coercion.
If one uses incorrect definitions, it is possible to justify anything.
One reference re Liberty:
In his monumental work The Constitution of Liberty, F.A. Hayek and the discussion of “individual liberty” he says: “defining freedom as the absence of coercion…”
Of course we all know, the Supreme Court will make the final decision as to the constitutionality of the individual mandate. But in the meantime, we need to follow our AMA policy from the policy-making body of AMA, the House of Delegates. And when AMA makes policy, that on reflection, is not sound, or strays from policy, as some in the House of Delegates believe has happened with PPACA considered as a whole, then we need to fix it in the House of Delegates. We will have that opportunity to revisit current AMA policy, the individual mandate H-165.848, and decide if we wish to remove it. Mistakes can be made. It is wonderful to recognize mistakes and correct them. Even if the Supreme Court declares PPACA unconstitutional because of the individual mandate, we still will have our AMA policy unless we change it. If the policy cannot be implemented because the Court has said it is not allowed to mandate people in that manner, then the policy is no longer viable as a possible advocacy issue.
MGMA: ACO costs outweigh benefits under proposed CMS rule
By Andis Robeznieks
Posted: June 1, 2011 – 3:00 pm ET
Tags: Accountable Care Organizations, Costs, Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Physicians
The CMS’ proposed rule (PDF) on accountable care organizations carries “excessively high” startup and operation costs relative to its “small and uncertain financial benefits” as well as “substantial regulatory risks” from the CMS inspector general’s office, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, according to formal comments filed by the Medical Group Management Association.
The Englewood, Colo.-based association’s comments also criticize the proposed rule’s attempts to link ACO implementation with federal programs promoting health information technology adoption.
“Medical groups already face a number of incentives or penalties associated with decisions to deploy or not to deploy healthcare information technology,” according to the association. “MGMA has urged the government in multiple forums to be realistic about the pace of (electronic health-record system) deployment, given the significant upfront and ongoing costs of those systems and the very real risks of ‘false starts’ with technology that may not be sustainable because of rapid product innovation and market dynamics.”
In addition to its eight-page comment letter to CMS Administrator Dr. Donald Berwick, the MGMA sent separate letters to the office of CMS Inspector General Daniel Levinson and FTC Secretary Donald Clark calling on the FTC and the Justice Department to “find a more streamlined method to screen proposed (ACO) collaborations so that the very process of seeking approval does not deter applicants.”
The MGMA has 22,500 members who manage some 13,600 medical organizations in which approximately 280,000 physicians practice.
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2331 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating “Join DJP Update”
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DJP Update 6-2-2011 AMA’s New EVP/CEO – starts Job July 1
See AMA press release below.
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 11 A.M. (CT), JUNE 2, 2011
AMA NAMES DR. JAMES MADARA NEW EVP/CEO
Accomplished academic medical center administrator and dean begins post July 1
CHICAGO – The American Medical Association (AMA) today named James L. Madara, M.D., as its new Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Madara will assume leadership of the nation’s oldest and largest physician group on July 1.
Dr. Madara, 60, is an accomplished academic medical centerphysician, medical scientist and administrator who served as Timmie Professor and Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine before assuming the Thompson Distinguished Service Professorship and deanship at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, where he was the longest serving Pritzker dean in the last 35 years. Subsequently, he added the responsibility of CEO of the University of Chicago Medical Center, bringing together the university’s biomedical research, teaching and clinical activities. As CEO, he engineered significant new affiliations with community hospitals, teaching hospital systems, community Federally Qualified Health Centers on Chicago’s South Side, as well as with national research organizations including the Janelia Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Bethesda and the Ludwig Foundation of New York.
“The AMA is a venerable institution, and I am honored to leadit during this challenging and exciting time,” Dr. Madara said. “The AMA has been at the forefront working to improve public health, physician practice, patient care and our American health care system for the past 164 years. Today more than ever, America’s patients and physicians need a strong and vibrant AMA to tackle the many challenges facing them. I look forward to leveraging my skills and experience to help the AMA succeed and fulfill its core mission to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.”
While at the University of Chicago from 2002-2009, Dr. Madara oversaw a significant renewal of the institution’s biomedical campus, including the Comer Children’s Hospital, the Gordon Center for Integrative Science, a new adult hospital pavilion, and the Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery. His deanship also extended to the University’s renowned Biological Sciences Division.
— more —
“The American Medical Association is thrilled to have a proven medical leader like Dr. Madara serve as our next EVP/CEO,” said Ardis D. Hoven, M.D., chair, AMA Board of Trustees. “Dr. Madara is a strong strategic thinker and planner who has a track record of bringing people together to accomplish significant, ambitious, health-related goals and projects. Having overseen a $1.6 billion integrated academic medical center, Dr. Madara understands many of the complex clinical, academic and business-related issues confronting medicine and health care today. His insight and perspective will be invaluable in helping the AMA tackle its agenda.”
Dr. Madara is a noted academic pathologist and an authority on epithelial cell biology and on gastrointestinal disease. He has published more than 200 original papers and chapters, making important contributions to understanding the biology of the cells that line the digestive tract. His work has garnered both national and international awards.
Dr. Madara has served as President of the American Board of Pathology, as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Pathology, has received a prestigious MERIT Award from the NIH, has been elected to membership in the Association of American Physicians, and recently received the Davenport Award for lifetime achievement in gastrointestinal disease from the American Physiological Society.
Most recently, Dr. Madara served as senior advisor with Leavitt Partners, a highly innovative health care consulting firm started by former Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt.
Dr. Madara earned his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. He completed his internship and residency at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston. He subsequently completed a fellowship in anatomy and cell biology at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital). Following his fellowship, Dr. Madara joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School where he rose to a full tenured professor and served as director of the Harvard Digestive Diseases Center.
Dr. Madara is married to Vicki M. Madara. They have two children: Alexis and Max.
The American Medical Association helps doctors help patients by uniting physicians nationwide to work on the most important professional, public health and health policy issues. The nation’s largest physician organization plays a leading role in shaping the future of medicine. For more information on the AMA, please visit www.ama-assn.org. Follow AMA on Twitter at https://twitter.com/AmerMedicalAssn
DJP Update 5-31-2011 A plan to solve America’s fiscal problems – Worth reading – Note removal of restrictions on “balance-billing” in Medicare and the repeal of PPACA or ACA
Fiscal Solutions:
A Balanced Plan for Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth
Joseph Antos, Andrew Biggs, Alex Brill, and Alan D. Viard
May 25, 2011
“This plan was developed as part of the Solutions Initiative and funded by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
The Peterson Foundation convened organizations with a variety of perspectives to develop plans addressing our nation’s fiscal challenges. The American Enterprise Institute, Bipartisan Policy Center, Center for American Progress, Economic Policy Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and Roosevelt Institute Campus Network each received grants.”
EXCERPT FROM PAGE 8 OF 28 PAGE REPORT IN THE DISCUSSION OF MEDICARE
Our plan stabilizes physician payment rates and allows them to increase with general inflation. To introduce an element of market pricing, restrictions on “balance billing” would be lifted. Physicians would be permitted to charge any amount over the Medicare payment for their services (subject to their ability to command higher prices in the market), as long as they disclose their prices in advance. In addition, restrictions on physician ability to provide services to Medicare beneficiaries outside of program rules (referred to as “private contracting”) would be lifted.
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EXCERPT FROM PAGE 3 OF 28 PAGE REPORT IN THE DISCUSSION OF PPACA OR ACA. RECOMMENDS REPEALING ACA.
To develop an effective plan, it is necessary to repeal the ACA and replace it with a new set of policies based on market principles and budget realities. Nonetheless, the major objectives of that legislation (such as creating an organized marketplace for insurance, better information for consumers, and expanded federal insurance subsidies for those most in need) are reflected in new policies better able to achieve those goals.
DJP Comment: This is movement in the direction of liberty. The word is getting out.
The entire report is at: http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/~/media/files/2011/aei%202011%20fiscal%20summit.pdf?referrer=search
Thanks to Katie Orrico for the alert about this report.
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Finally, thanks for the kind letters about Tabasco!
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2331 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating “Join DJP Update”
To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.
Comments Off on DJP Update 5-31-2011 A plan to solve America’s fiscal problems – Worth reading – Note removal of restrictions on “balance-billing” in Medicare and the repeal of PPACA or ACA
DJP Update 5-29-2011: R.I.P. Tabasco the dog 1995-2011; Memorial Day 2011; Loss of a friend to all: Former AMA President John L. Clowe, MD
R.I.P. Tabasco 1995-2011
Tabasco departed to dog heaven to meet Sacha and Chloe at 11:15 a.m. yesterday (May 28, 2011). We were with her at the end of her wonderful life on earth. A loyal and loving dog, we will miss her greatly.
Tabasco was the most amazing dog I ever owned. Robin and I rescued her from the highway when she was about 6 months of age. I told Robin it was sad to see the dead dog on the highway. Robin insisted she could be alive and asked me what was I going to tell the kids about why I did not stop. I stopped the car and walked out on the highway to confirm the death to satisfy Robin. To my amazement, the dog lifted her head, looked at me with big eyes that appeared to bugle from her emaciated body. Her head then collapsed to the road. Fleas were everywhere and blood surrounded the dog’s head. With her red coat and nearness to Avery Island, we named her Tabasco. After intense treatment at a tertiary care Vet hospital, her wounds were on the mend, and her fleas, intestinal worms, and heart worms cured. She would have been 16 years of age on July 4th (her assigned birthday based on the Vets estimate of age.) She was a fearless street-wise dog and loved and protected our home. To her, Robin was the leader of the pack. Always gently and protective of the grandkids, everyone loved Tabasco. No large dog ever intimidated her.
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Photos of Tabasco including a favorite where she is pictured with her two sisters
http://www.donaldpalmisano.com/html/tabasco.html
A photo of Tabasco taking a ride with Robin (scroll down the page and double-click on image of Tabasco to enlarge)
http://twitpic.com/photos/DJPNEWS?page=2
The Story of Tabasco is told in this issue of The Pelican Brief in 1996
Note the photo caption accompanying The Pelican Brief. An interesting reminder:
Dr. Palmisano questions Dr. Bill Frist,
U.S. Senator from Tennessee, at the
1995 AMA Grassroots Conference in Washington, DC about whether the proposed Medicare reforms include the right to privately contract (AMA Policy 165.916).
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MEMORIAL DAY 2011
Let us give thanks for those who gave their lives for liberty. Freedom in not Free.
http://twitpic.com/photos/DJPNEWS?page=2(Scroll down page and double-click on photo of “Freedom is Not Free” Memorial Day image to enlarge.)
More on the concept of “Freedom is not Free” in epilogue of my book “ON LEADERSHIP”.
See this excerpt from book. Go to bottom of page: http://onleadership.us/pages/excerpts.php
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LOSS OF A FRIEND TO ALL: Former AMA President John L. Clowe, MD
AMA sent this message to all of the AMA former presidents and chairs:
It is with regret that I inform you that we have received word that former AMA President John L. Clowe, MD, passed away Wednesday at the age of 89. Dr. Clowe served as AMA President in 1992-1993. Prior to being elected president, he served as Speaker (1987-1991) and Vice Speaker (1984-1987) of the House of Delegates. He was also a former president and speaker of the Medical Society of the State of New York, and a charter fellow and member of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
A family physician from Schenectady, New York, Dr. Clowe retired to Englewood, Florida with his beloved wife Marion many years ago. In addition to his many accomplishments as a physician, Dr. Clowe was a fine man, as well as a good husband and father, and we will miss his gentility, grace, and gentle sense of humor.
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Many fine tributes to Dr. Clowe were sent to AMA by the past presidents and chairs regarding Dr. Clowe. Here is what I sent:
Dr. Clowe truly was a gentle man and a gentleman. He always greeted Robin & me with a smile and had an amazing memory for first names. His comments at the microphone in the years after his presidency were insightful and full of practical wisdom.
May he rest in peace and his memory live on. Our sincere condolences.
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Note: AMA will soon have funeral arrangement information available. It would be nice for AMA to put a notice on AMA home page about the passing of this wonderful doctor who served as AMA President and Speaker. I can’t find any mention as of today on Website.
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Stay well! And hug a loved one this weekend. Everyone appreciates a hug especially in times of loss.
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2331 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating “Join DJP Update”
To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.
Comments Off on DJP Update 5-29-2011: R.I.P. Tabasco the dog 1995-2011; Memorial Day 2011; Loss of a friend to all: Former AMA President John L. Clowe, MD
DJP UPDATE 5-21-2011 Great trip to NYC for TV interview and more; AMA and multiple medical & specialty societies sign on for support of balance-billing in Medicare; MAG; LAGNIAPPE
Robin and I had a great trip to New York City. TV interview, a meeting with Philip Howard of Common Good (one of the most creative persons I know), a visit to my publisher, Skyhorse Publishing (who just bought another company and moved to new headquarters!), and dinner with a client of Intrepid Resources who has become a dear friend over many years of association. And Robin even figured how to get in an afternoon Broadway play even though she attended all of the activities I attended. She is full of energy and loves NYC. I missed the play.
The in-studio interview on Fox and Friends in New York City took place May 18. I was the first person interviewed that day on the show. It went very well. A giant copy of the book was evident in the background during the interview.
Also the book was shown by itself on the screen. If you did not have time to see the interview, you can see it online at YouTube at my IntrepidResources site. Segment only takes 4 minutes and 5 seconds to view.
Parts of the interview were shown over and over again during other hours of the show. The hot issue: waivers given to the PPACA law and the high percentage in former speaker’s district.
Also, my book made the top of the Fox & Friends Reading List
Leadership is a skill that can be taught, especially through the study of exemplary figures of the past. In each chapter of ‘On Leadership,’ Dr. Donald J. Palmisano cites an example of positive or negative action as a source from which to glean essential leadership lessons |Click here to learn more
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Thanks to all who have written me about their purchase of multiple copies of book to give as gifts. I wish everyone in Congress could read the book because the last two chapters (the new chapters) give a powerful message from the majority of Americans. If only Congress would listen before the USA goes bankrupt and also destroys innovation, incentive, and access to care. Some on the list may not like these thoughts as they wish to continue full speed ahead in the direction we are going now but it would be a sad state of affairs if we sat silently by and did not voice opinions on how to preserve the liberty that we enjoyed because of others dying to protect our freedoms. Yes, and Happy Armed Forces Day! Thank a veteran and those currently in the military. I honor them always by wearing my JCOC63 pin that you see on my coat in the TV video above.
Under Medicare, certain physicians may opt to bill patients a portion of what Medicare does not cover for medical services. This is called “balance billing” but Medicare strictly limits how much physicians may balance bill their patients. Many private payers also restrict or prohibit physicians from balance billing their patients.
Representative Tom Price (R-GA-6) has sponsored a bill, H.R. 1384, supporting the AMA’s stance on balance billing.
Rep. Tom Price, MD (R-GA) introduced H.R. 1700, the Medicare Patient Empowerment Act, on May 3, 2011
(see summary). This bill, in line with AMA policy, would allow Medicare patients and their physicians to enter into private contracts without penalty to either party. It would enable beneficiaries to use their Medicare benefits to see physicians who do not accept Medicare, as opposed to paying for the entire cost of their care out-of-pocket as required under current law.
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Thanks to those who have advocated this important liberty right over the years and AMA explicit policy since 1993. And special thanks to those, such as the Coalition of State Medical and National Specialty Societies who have refused to let this critical issue be forgotten.
See this link: http://www.mag.org/pdfs/pr_williamson_testimony_050511.pdf
This Coalition testimony left no doubt what the message was. It was stated in the oral testimony, not hidden in the printed submission. Good example of FOCUS!
A point never to forget: Dr. Williamson told the subcommittee – which includes MAG member and Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D. – that the government has the right to determine what it will pay toward medical care, but it doesn’t have the right to determine the value of that medical care. “This value determination should ultimately be made by the individual patient,” he pronounced.
(DJP Comment: That is consistent with LIBERTY!)
The Coalition of State Medical and National Specialty Societies is made up of 16 member groups that
represent some 90,000 physicians. With some 6,000 members, MAG is the leading voice for the medical
profession in Georgia. Go to www.mag.org for more information.
In my view, the AMA Website should have this issue in BOLD print on the home page of AMA in addition to doing a powerful ad campaign on radio and TV. Republicans and Democrats need to pay attention to this important issue. Price-fixing will continue to decrease access to care. Then the doctors will be blamed.
The AMA June meeting, as always, will be interesting. In the near future we will witness a resurgence of activism or, alternatively, a dying profession, strangled by government. The future is in our hands. Will future generations say doctors just groused around the coffee pot, or went along to get along, or remembered the honored traditions of Medicine and fought bravely to prevent encroachment on the ethical science-based practice of Medicine? Time will tell and it won’t be a long time from now.
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And a tip of the hat to Medical Association of Georgia. A job well done!
Gov. Nathan Deal has signed the “prompt pay” bill (H.B. 167) into law. The measure will require third party administrators to pay paper claims in 30 days and electronic claims in 15 days, respectively, or address why they haven’t done so.”Our sincere thanks to Governor Deal for his vision and leadership,” MAG President Dan DeLoach, M.D., said of the development. “This is going to enhance the practice environment and access to care in the state.”
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Off to Washington, DC area on Monday for patient safety meetings: Board of Governors NPSF and Annual Congress! Plane travel with all of the screening and exposure to X-Rays wears a person out! Meanwhile, the majority of the Southern border is porous.
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LAGNIAPPE: Check out this quick photo I took with the iPhone as the plane approached NYC and I noted the Empire State Bldg piercing the clouds. STANDING TALL! Double click on image to enlarge it.
http://twitpic.com/photos/DJPNEWS
Stay well and hug a loved one! Everyone loves to be appreciated.
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. With newer operating systems, such as SNOW LEOPARD on Mac, you can put Twitter apps on your notebook or desktop.
This DJP Update goes to 2331 leaders in Medicine representing all of the State Medical Associations and over 100 Specialty Societies plus some other friends.
You can share it with your members and it has the potential to reach 800,000 physicians.
To join the list, send me an email stating “Join DJP Update”
To get off the list, state ” Remove DJP Update” in subject line.
Comments Off on DJP UPDATE 5-21-2011 Great trip to NYC for TV interview and more; AMA and multiple medical & specialty societies sign on for support of balance-billing in Medicare; MAG; LAGNIAPPE
From the publisher