Physicians speak out more about healthcare reform

Texas and US government compete with me to provide medical care. This restricts reform. It's competition that takes out the extra weight. Here are some of the concepts being discussed by "Million Med Marchers", a conservative group of doctors and patients who want the government our of medicine:

1. Make insurance portable across state lines.

2. Make insurance subject to the same anti-trust limitations as all other businesses. Repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 (isn't that about when the trouble began?)

3. Encourage government and corporations to offer a choice of insurance. In Texas, all state employees have one choice: Blue Cross Blue Shield. BCBS has 1/3 of the Texas healthcare insurance market. BCBS owns the Texas Academy of Family Physicians, the Texas Medical Association, and the Texas Medical Board. Nice and tidy, isn't it? When one carrier begins to dominate the market, the docs are for sale.

4. Give small businesses and individuals the same tax credits as are available to large corporations.

5. Elected government officials should be offered the same plan, same restrictions, and same mandates as everyone else.

6. Listen to healthcare workers who are whistleblowers. We are telling you where the problems are, but you won't listen.

7. Healthcare licensing boards around the country are for sale. They do not generally serve the public need and are compromised by conflicts of interest. Contrary to what is commonly thought, medical boards are not dominated by the AMA. The AMA is dying and does not represent the views of the majority of physicians. It is rife with conflicts of interest. This is not good for healthcare. In Texas, the Texas Medical Board protects bad doctors and harasses conscientious doctors who blow the whistle.

8. High deductible health plans.

9. Health Savings Accounts UN-tethered to health insurance companies.

10. Medicaid abuse and Social Security Disability abuse overwhelm us now. With Obamacare, everything will be either Medicaid, Medicare, or VA. It's going to bankrupt us. Medicaid consumes over 25% of the Texas state budget. In Tennessee, it's 40%. What is it in your state?

Do you hear Obama making any of these suggestions? If not, could it be that he really doesn't want private healthcare to survive?

A physician friend of mine is concerned about the next pandemic:

Here is her story:

"I went to a dinner party last night, where I and other guests enjoyed copious amounts of alcohol.

I awoke this morning not feeling well, with what could be described as flu-like symptoms; headache, nausea, chills, sore eyes, etc.

From the results of some initial testing, I have unfortunately tested positive for what experts are now calling Wine Flu.

This debilitating condition is very serious - and it appears this is not an isolated case.

Reports are flooding in from all around the country of others diagnosed with Wine Flu. To anyone that starts to exhibit the aforementioned tell-tale signs, experts are recommending a cup of tea and a bit of a lie down.

However, should your condition worsen, you should immediately rent a DVD and take some Advil . Others are reporting a McDonald's Happy Meal can also help in some cases. If not, then further application of the original liquid, in similar quantities to the original dose, has been shown to do the trick.

Wine Flu does not need to be life threatening and, if treated early, can be eradicated within a 24-48 hour period.

NOTE
If you find you are complaining a lot, it may be that it has mutated into Whine Flu. This is particularly common in men and can quickly spread to their partners where the symptoms are detected as a serious case of eye-rolling."

Dear Curious,

You tell "a great story" and you tell it articulately. And even better, you don't have a conflict of interest with the healthcare industry.

As a physician, I have a potential conflict of interest with the culprits who caused you harm. Therefore, my motives could be easily questioned.

May I put your letter, without revealing your identity, in a blog I want to start? It may be a tool I can use to get those outside the healthcare industry interested enough to want to learn why healthcare is in the very sad state it is in.

I agree that the doctor you describe must have been incompetent or unethical. Either way, he wasn't acting in your best interest. You perhaps might be asking the wrong question - how do you know none of his peers spoke up or reported him?

Many of the doctors I deal with spoke out and paid a high price. I believe I have been retaliated against by several Texas state agencies, including the Texas Medical Board, and by Blue Cross Blue Shield because I have spoken out. Does this not bring a solution to your problem back to the necessity for medical board reform?

As for why your doctor (in the second yellow highlighted paragraph) didn't "take the lead in addressing the shortcomings of the system", judging by what happened to me when I "took the lead in addressing the shortcomings of the system", I would guess it was because he didn't relish having the hell beat out of him in the twilight years of his life.

Shirley

On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 10:04 AM, curious cat <crscat55@gmail.com> wrote:

Hmm.

You managed to avoid the main issue; this man, this doctor, was either incompetent or deliberately failing to diagnose and treat us. He definitely had conflicts of interest both personal and business. Both issues relate to quality of care.

He knew his failure to act in our best interests would cause us great harm.

This same doctor came to my mother's house at her behest the day my husband committed suicide to give me a "shot". My attempts to find out just what was in that shot have been stymied.

Oddly enough, he had treated my husband before we married. In fact, he had seen him back in '76 when he had his major break down and the doctor was instrumental in having him hospitalized. I only discovered this when I carefully examined my husband's VA file that took me 17 yrs to get.. and then it took a bit longer due to the numerous moves, subsequent landlord poisonings, and the fact that those records were barely legible and had to be requested several times to get copies that were. When I contacted him for that, he had nothing to say and no longer had his records. I believe I told you that in '95 a bill was passed allowing private docs and hospitals to destroy patient records after 7 yrs without making it mandatory to notify patients or the public of this. I only became aware of this in 2001 which made the stalling and delays of several doctors finally clear.

Can you see now that the public's view of doctors has changed? I told a former director of a medical disciplinary board that the public now generally held doctors in the same esteem as used car salesmen. He replied that it was true and perhaps deservedly.

No one was willing to speak up for us though a few did give information and clues off the record. Manus manum lavat. My descent was long, slow, torturous and cruel. It was a shock to find out that this happens to very many people. Why did none of this doctor's peers speak up or report him?

While I have read, and listened, extensively of your plight and do agree that you apparently were singled out, I have also more than a little knowledge of law enforcement, the legal system, and human nature.

When one group begins to trample on the rights of another, that is to say shows them disrespect, it is often reciprocated and trickles down. Scapegoats and sacrificial lambs become common place. While I understand your reply to be an ambiguous response to my post, I am only illustrating the bigger picture. Most people will not share their personal experiences to illustrate points. I do.

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This doctor had conflicts of interest that he knew would impact his ability to treat me and/or that his expertise was lacking or he was completely unethical. To my knowledge, he was never disciplined by the medical board. While I agree in theory that some conflicts of interest are inevitable, your argument for why that might be fails to hold water; since doctors may be unethically retaliated against by medical boards they will have conflicts of interest that will impact or impair their ethics and the quality of care they give their patients.

This doctor knew me, knew my family. He had the ability to explain to me what was going on and refer me to someone who was more experienced in chemical exposures and perhaps less conflicted. It was his duty. He was my established doctor and had taken payment from me and my family for decades. He is but one of many. How many patients do you think got thrown under the bus? If he is so sharp, and he thinks he is, and so rich, which he is, and he is retired, why didn't he take the lead in addressing the shortcomings in the system?

Reform is definitely needed. People differ on where it is needed most. There was a time when only the brightest of students were accepted and/or graduated from medical schools. Medical schools, like medicine, has become big business with an emphasis on profit and with it the luster has faded from the profession itself. One cannot serve two masters well, one will surely suffer. In this particular case, the doctor chose it to be his medical practice and thus his patients.

Just want you to see that while you are battling a specific set of circumstances, there are more things going on in the background. Perception is a HUGE part of how we judge others, some dig deeper, some don't and that doesn't change regardless of the amount of education one might or might not have.

Curious

On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 2:39 PM, Shirley Pigott MD <shirleypigottmd@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Curious,

In my work with medical board reform, we are unaware of any state medical board which does not retaliate against doctors for various reasons unrelated to quality of care. Is is no wonder that the doctors who are untouched have conflicts of interest? I don't see how healthcare can survive without major reform and I don't hear anything about the kind of reform needed - based on free enterprise, primary care, with emphasis on prevention, management of chronic conditions, and patient empowerment. Integral to real reform is the elimination of sham peer review.

Shirley

On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 1:19 PM, curious cat <crscat55@gmail.com> wrote:

Shirley,

I recently contacted a doctor I have known since childhood. He knew my family, he treated me from age 7 or so on.

When I became ill in '84, he was the one that said he could find nothing and that it was stress and that my baby was picking up on the stress from me. He sent me to a shrink. I went. I took the meds until I couldn't function and take care of business or baby. Kept telling him something else was wrong.

Then I caught landlord in act of trespassing and spraying my apartment with chlordane and return to first doc. He orders tests and proclaims none of the pesticide was found. Then I show him he'd had failed to use proper diagnostic testing, used his own books to do so. He blew me off. Then I discovered that he had gotten a contract to "care" for chemical plant workers.

Recently, I contacted him in the hopes of getting him to verify my personal history and/or give me reference to someone who was familiar with vector-borne illness. He listened, politely, in his return call, then told me he'd retired 7 yrs ago and that he could do nothing and told me, "I hope you find someone.". My uncle built this man's clinic to entice him to our area of town.

This doctor does full-time real estate investment counseling, said that is what he'd been doing for 7 yrs...but he knows that I know he's been doing it for more like 30 and for the last 15 yrs or more was so rarely in his medical office that still bears his name that never would come close to describing it. He was, to my memory, always more interested in his business endeavors than in his practice. His bed-side manner consisted of moralizing to his patients about things they were not in there for. I always took it in stride as I knew he had a habit of repeating personal info to one's parents or other family....no confidentiality there even if you were over 18.

This is a real concern for people like me. Being blown off a second time by a man who knew my family, my Dad, me, my personal history, etc...is disconcerting. Now that we have a large number of physicians entering politics, I am not so sure I feel any more comfortable about that than the high numbers of lawyers. Disturbing is an understatement.

People have a right to expect care from their doctors. This man proved, at least 2x, that he had conflicts of interest and would let the well-being of an established patient fall by the way side if it suited his purposes. While I respect the intelligence it takes to acquire a medical degree, I find it hard to find it in me to have respect for anyone who treats me so contemptuously...and this man knows just how very smart I am, or was. This, therefore, has little to do with intellect or respect for it, it has to do with greed; the love of money and/or power trumps the professional's ability to adhere to the code or oath of his/her office.

I spoke with the former director of a medical disciplinary board in the not so decent past and told him that people are beginning to hold doctors in the same esteem that they hold used car salesmen...he said that he knew it was true.

Is it the intent then to force the populace to take whatever treatment that the doctors see fit to dish out even if it flies in the face of reason and established knowledge? On another note, the FDA is shutting down dessicated thyroid supplements and that is apparently just the beginning. As a student of history I can honestly say we have all the hallmarks of a pre-revolution on our hands.

Shirley Pigott MD, Executive Director
Texas Medical Board Watch
www.TexasMedicalBoardWatch.com
361-652-9474 cell
361-894-6464 home
shirleypigottmd@gmail.com