Doctor Leaving USA

Posted: Wednesday, June 23 2010

Intro from Daniel Palestrant, Founder & CEO of Sermo
The Sermo community responds to a physician who has decided to leave America and practice elsewhere after the passage of health care reform. Many physicians feel their interests were sidelined in the reform debate and passage.

Originally Posted to the Sermo Community
By: An OBGYN on Sermo

I'm sorry.

Some may say i'm weak, some may say I've given up too soon. What they CAN'T say about me is that I didn't try. I stood out on the street on my Saturdays off and tried to rally for "real" health care reform. I've offered to hold forums for other docs to discuss ways we can inform the public and our patients...I've passed out fliers in the doctors lounge at my hospital. I've done it all and I've seen everything fail. I'm tired. I can't go on in this country for another 20+ years.

I've been sued once already and now (icing on the cake), I have a former patient, an illegal alien who is considering suing my practice. I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've been beat up and I'm not doing it anymore. I love this country and I LOVE my practice and even worse, I'm damned good at what I do. But now, I chose to do it somewhere else. Somewhere where people don't expect me to produce the world for them and say "thank you" for the care I've provided and don't argue with me about EVERYTHING.

I know I'm not a martyr but someone can let Mr. Obama know that a perfectly good, board certified physician is deciding to call another country home because I can't take it anymore!!!

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From the Founder: The Justice Department Declares War on Doctors

Posted: Wednesday, June 2 2010

A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor, titled " The Justice Department Declares War on Doctors",  explores the impact of a newly DOJ in enforcing government price controls on physicians (click here).  Not surprisingly, this article has already sparked quite a discussion in the Sermo community (click here).  However, the timing of this development is particularly concerning for a number of reasons.

With a 21% physician payment cut looming this coming week, CMS has decided to delay all physician payments for at least two weeks while Congress passes this political hot potato around (click here).  We are also seeing several states attempt to link medical licensure to participation in these very same programs (click here).   In effect, this boxes in physicians, giving them little choice but to accept these arbitrary payment terms or loose their ability to care for their patients.

It should be noted that a provision in the healthcare reform bill that would have repealed the McCarran-Ferguson Act, taking away insurance companies' anti-trust exemption was removed from the final version of the bill.  This means that insurance companies (and now the government) are exempt from any anti-trust or price fixing scrutiny, while physicians are legally banned from coordinating their efforts, much less unionizing.

With the evidence now mounting that the government is going to "back door" a socialized healthcare system, what steps should physicians be considering in order to safeguard our profession and provide the best possible care for our patients?

Daniel Palestrant, MD

Founder & CEO

Sermo, Inc.

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