Adam Bruggeman, MD
@DrBruggeman
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Spine surgeon, dual boarded in addiction medicine and orthopedics. passionate about health policy. AAOS Council on Advocacy Chair
San Antonio, Texas
Joined June 2014
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Take a minute and realize how absolutely laughable this statement (quoted below) that increased physician payments in NSA above an artificially low QPA will cause an increase in insurance premiums.
FACTS:
One half of one percent of all claims are NSA eligible per AHIP (.005).
The No Surprises Act was supposed to eliminate surprise bills w/o increasing premiums.
But that goal now appears at risk.
We find that prices emerging from arbitration are much higher than prior in-network rates.
As a result, the law may perversely end up ↑ premiums.
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The conversion factor for physician pay in 2000 was $36.6137. The conversion factor for physician pay in 2022 was $34.6062. Physician pay went down a little over 5% in those 20 years. Premiums and deductibles more than tripled. Let’s stop blaming doctors for the increased costs
Trends in Health Insurance Premiums: 2000 to 2022
Over the past two decades, the costs associated with health insurance premiums and deductibles have significantly increased. This data examines the trends in single— and family premiums and deductibles from 2000 to 2022.
A 🧵..
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Going to say it again…
1998 conversion factor for doctors - $36.68
2024 conversation factor for doctors - $33.29
1999 Insurance premiums - $6k
2024 Insurance premiums - $24k
When you pay more for healthcare, it’s not coming from private, independent doctors no matter what
Average US family health insurance premium...
1999: $6k
2002: $8k
2005: $11k
2008: $13k
2011: $15k
2014: $17k
2017: $19k
2020: $21k
2023: $24k
That's a 314% increase since 1999 (6.1% per year).
(Note: US CPI inflation has increased 2.5%/year)
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Physician pay over last 4 years: -7.76%
Yet physicians (as small businesses) have helped carry the economy through every downturn, generate new jobs, and pay taxes to their local economy.
Let’s fix this problem. Physicians are critical to local and national economies and
Price Increases over last 4 years...
CPI Medical Care: +7.8%
CPI Apparel: +12.7%
CPI Used Cars: +18.3%
CPI New Cars: +20.5%
CPI Food at home: +21.4%
CPI Shelter: +23.4%
CPI Food away from home: +25.4%
CPI Electricity: +29.8%
CPI Gas Utilities: +34.9%
CPI Transportation: +38.8%
US
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Today my team sat down with our insurance broker. My health insurance premium for my employees went up 30% for our renewal.
The government cut their pay to me and all doctors by 3.37% this year for the first two months then reduced the cut to 1.66% for the remainder of the
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The cost to American taxpayers? Over $80B ANNUALLY. We can’t keep propping up insurers while cutting pay to physicians annually. Take the money from the hands of insurers and put it in the hands of the doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, and
MedPac report details how Medicare Advantage plans charge the government 23% more than it would have cost to treat the same patients in traditional Medicare without gimmicks such as prior authorizations and "death" AI algorithms. That's page 26!
Now, they deny 30-50% of care
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CMS: We can’t figure out how to increase pay to physicians to keep up with inflation and pay less than what we paid in 1998 when we repealed SGR
Also CMS: Insurers can illegally pocket billions from taxpayers through Medicare Advantage upcoding if they want
Make it make sense
1/As previously posted here last week,
@CMSGov
voluntarily adopted policies that restricted their right to claim overpayments back from
#MedicareAdvantage
health plans, based on the plans diagnosis upcoding of MA patients. That meant leaving hundreds of $Ms of tax payer $ on
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People who oppose Physician Owned Hospitals:
1) Hospitals that don’t want competition
People who support Physician Owned Hospitals:
1) Essentially everyone else
This shouldn’t be so hard.
Felons can own a hospital.
Insurers can own a hospital.
Lawyers can own a
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Listen to this exchange between Sen Warren and Andrew Witty, CEO of United. He states that the 90,000 employed (or “controlled”) doctors “choose to work with us” implying they have a choice. That’s an incredible manipulation of facts.
1) In order to meet the IRS definition of
I still can't get over this exchange between Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Witty. Semantics aside, UnitedHealth still has 90,000 physicians who have a financial incentive to work with, and look out for, UnitedHealth. That is no small thing.
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Physicians need reliable long term pay. Medicare continues to cut physician pay while insurers cost taxpayers 10s (hundreds?) of billions annually to administer their version of Medicare. It’s past time to close the insurer loopholes and reinvest the savings in America’s doctors
When folks in DC ask what the “pay for” is to pay for HR 2474–the bill would tie the Medicare physician fee schedule to “Medicare Economic Index” (MEI) which is +4.5% for ‘24– here it is w/ funds left over.
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The real answer is that physician pay has not kept up with inflation and the amounts paid to physicians do not reflect the actual value of the care. Insurers have been able to unilaterally reduce pay to physicians while exponentially increasing their revenues through vertically
This article from
@axios
cites a new Health Affairs article that analyzes IDR results from 2023 and suggests that certain providers, especially those backed by private equity, are doing very well in the process.
According to the Health Affairs piece, 70 percent of IDR claims
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United Healthcare announced a voluntary national Gold Card program. This program allows physicians who follow guidelines at least 92% of the time to bypass prior authorization.
Congress has a similar bill before it that it has not moved on. Physicians want the bill passed and
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Things that have gone down since ACA was passed:
1) physician ownership in hospitals
2) physician pay compared to inflation
3) access to care
Things that have gone up since ACA was passed:
1) insurance company profits
2) consolidation/vertical integration
3) insurance premiums
Proponents of the ACA wanted lower premiums.
What the country received was higher premiums.
Have premiums gone down since 2009?
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Hospitals get 3.1% INCREASE from Biden admin and they say it’s not enough. Doctors get 3.36% DECREASE from Biden admin after 20 years of failing to keep physician pay up with costs and inflation. If it’s not enough for hospitals it’s not appropriate for MD small businesses either
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Adding insult to injury. How is this ok? Physicians didn’t get paid and now must spend additional money to ultimately get paid due to inappropriate denials. Looking forward to the hearings on the Change Healthcare outage. The system is completely out of control.
This is fun… UHC system crashes for over a month. They get billions behind in payments. Then deny claims not “filed timely” during the time they were unable to process claims… and docs have to waste time to appeal this stupidity. 😡
#insurancefail
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The failure to reform Medicare payments and policies that encourage consolidation have led to rapid increases in physician employment. Doctors aren’t dropping out of Medicare (yet), they are just shifting the risk and cost to even more expensive venues (by becoming employed by
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Just another example of waste in the system from non-doctors. Thank goodness we banned physicians from owning hospitals in 2010 since they were so greedy and would ruin healthcare. The corporations that took over hospitals would NEVER make profits their primary focus 🙄
We need to get rid of ��facility fees” & “hospital outpatient departments”. It’s another 🏥 scam.
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Don’t look now… insurance companies have a policy (copays) that saves money, ensures more bonuses for their executives, and increases returns to their stockholders. Guess what it does for patients? It kills them. This is the sad reality of our current healthcare system.
Ever wonder why your insurer charges a copay for statins (and other high-value meds)?
Don’t they want to prevent heart attacks, strokes, etc?
Copays never made sense to me.
In this new paper in
@QJEHarvard
, we show copays kill. 🧵
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I just heard yet another colleague of mine, a surgeon who trained here in San Antonio, was killed today by a patient of his. We must make a stand and protect physicians and their staff. Something has to change. This is senseless.
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Physicians want to open hospitals where other entities have failed. The Affordable Care Act prevents these physicians from building hospitals in the communities of need. Instead they can only build clinics. It’s time to repeal Section 6001 of the Act. This is in the community
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Ok Ortho Twitter. We have a 3.80% reduction for 2025. The majority of physicians looking at a 2.80% reduction. A handful will be seeing a 1.80% reduction. Inflation hasn’t stopped so this cut is on top of increasing overhead. Consolidation will continue without intervention
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300 Orthopaedic surgeons. 350 congressional visits. We advocated for long term payment reform, healthcare worker safety, physician ownership of hospitals, and reform of prior authorization. Nothing happens overnight but the bipartisan interest was clearly evident.
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Bob Herman and STAT have exposed UHC for their profit schemes costing every American taxpayer. It’s time to spend our healthcare dollars on the people providing the care and stop wasting it on middlemen extracting profits for shareholders
During Q2 earnings call, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty again peddles false idea that Medicare Advantage "saves taxpayers money." It doesn't. Payments to MA plans are 22% higher than what they would be in traditional Medicare. Our previous debunking:
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I had a previous post showing that Medicare Advantage plans are potentially (in dispute by some members of MedPAC) making $88B in excess profits per year over traditional MCR. This new whistleblower article discusses how Optum, the largest MA plan, is doing it. At a time when
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Want to see the latest Optum tactic? It’s called “Innovative Payment Integrity Approach for Focused Claims Review”. Inundate the physician or hospital with medical records requests, run the claims through AI, then deny if a period is missing. Leads to multiple appeals to get
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Consolidation has not provided the improvements in care or cost for the American healthcare system. The only question is when will Congress decide to do something. Pull back policies that have encouraged consolidation. 340B. Site neutral. Physician owned hospitals. MEI.
A huge contract fight between HCA and UnitedHealthcare — both enormously profitable companies — is spilling out into the public. It's a perfect example of the facade of "value-based care." Read
@TaraBannow
for the details.
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Thank you to Dr Murphy for continuing to point out the downstream effects of declining physician reimbursement… new medical students find it more rewarding to go into business with their MD than to actually practice. We have a shortage of physicians and must protect access
The fire physician shortage is here. Med Schools aren’t responding as 63% of medical students now have no intention of practicing.
Washington must stop access for Seniors by cutting Medicare reimbursements and crushing access to care.
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Today is the day…. The “Prior Authorization Bill” has been dropped. It passed the House unanimously last session right as the CBO scored the bill at $16B. The Senate declined to take it up due to cost concerns. The new score, due to Biden administration actions, should be 0.
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This is incredibly important for the future of our country. Thank you for your leadership along with
@michaelcburgess
Last night, I led a bipartisan coalition in opposing the 3.37% cut to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
83+ million people in the U.S. currently live in areas without sufficient access to a Primary Care Physician.
Congress must stand up for America's patients and doctors!
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We will keep beating the drum until those in power listen. This is a threat to the health of our country and the health of the economy. Small businesses are being pushed out. Consolidation is increasing costs. The economy will suffer. Time to get this fixed!
🚨🧵”Facing a 5th consecutive year of Medicare payment reductions,
@AmerMedicalAssn
issued a clarion call today to
@CMSGov
urging the agency to be fully transparent about the impact of these payment cuts on physicians and patients.”
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Prior authorization continues to burden physicians and patients. In this study, only 0.3% of all claims were ultimately denied but it took over a month on average to get approval and even longer when the insurance company initially denied the care then ultimately reversed course.
This study found prior authorization in a high-volume orthopaedic practice to approve elective THA and TKA led to increased surgical waiting times and a high administrative burden for surgeons and healthcare staff.
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Honored to be asked for the second time in a month to testify on the issues facing physicians in our healthcare system. Listen in on Thursday as we discuss how consolidation is impacting American physicians and patients.
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We finally have SOME information about what was stolen. Sounds like it wasn’t charts from physician offices. United also confirmed that the ransom was paid (previously reported as $22 Million). The bad news: a “substantial” portion of the population is impacted. This goes
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Proud to continue the fight in DC for payment reform, physician owned hospitals, and prior authorization. Our voice and that of our patients must be heard…. The future of our healthcare system depends on a stable and appropriate payment system.
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Here is the latest I can provide on the cuts and the percentages.
The conversion factor is being reduced by 2.8% comparative to 2024.
There is a 2% reduction for sequestration. That number was baked into the 2024 cuts and therefore there isn’t another 2% reduction for
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Today I had the opportunity to testify in front of the Budget Committee on breaking up Monopolies while Chris Kean, COO of TSAOG testified on independent physician practice in Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. There is a strong bipartisan desire to fix physician pay, break down
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Another day, another bad story about prior authorization. Doctors burning out due to the demands of insurers on how quickly they must deny care. Outsourced medical decisions to nurses in the Philippines. Congress needs to step in and fix this problem!
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Consolidation has been a massive plague on healthcare and is responsible for the unending increases in costs. Obamacare has many great components, but the pieces that encourage consolidation need to be repealed. It’s time… in fact there may be little time left. Let’s take action
#CNBC2024
Former Obama cabinet member Peter Orzag is now attacking Biden antitrust enforcers because he says that vertical integration in health care is what policy is aiming towards. Then says the Google search claim is bad because AI made it irrelevant.
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Happy to continue to shine the light on inadequate payment in the Medicare fee schedule for physicians. Every other aspect of healthcare gets a pay increase that reflects inflation. Physicians, midlevels, counselors, and physical therapists instead get cut every year. It’s long
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This is what we see in healthcare… large conglomerates utilizing regulatory capture to force money into their companies and away from those who provide the care. This is exactly the playbook of PBMs, large hospital systems, insurers, and EHRs
My interview w/ Seema Verma of
@OracleHealth
. The former administrator of CMS left no doubt that she agreed with her colleague Ken Glueck that "Epic CEO Judy Faulkner was the single biggest obstacle to EHR interoperability."
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If you want a succinct, easy to read description of how our government has failed to reign in insurance companies and how that has ruined American healthcare, it’s right here. Physician groups must work together to bring about change.
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Thankful to have spent some time with Speaker Johnson for dinner a few weeks ago and then again here in San Antonio. Fun fact… we both got engaged on the Riverwalk. We spent most of our time discussing payment reform and consolidation issues in healthcare.
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Over 100 years ago medical education was changed for the better. Abraham Flexner provided a report on the status of American and Canadian medical schools that led to standardization of medical education and dramatically advanced the field. Nurse Practitioners need their Flexner
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Just out…. STAT’s latest article on United Healthcare. This one is on the use of QuantaFlo, mostly on in home visits, to diagnose questionable peripheral artery disease and increase payments on Medicare Advantage patients.
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You know what this sounds exactly like? Physician reimbursement. Physicians are in a catch 22 where they want to serve their community but private insurers, Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare itself refuse to pay physicians at or above the cost of doing business and continue
The PBM hired by TriCare, is out there trying to kill independent pharmacies by asking them to do a deal that pays them less than cost and ZERO for the work to actually fill the prescription.
The Indy pharmacies are in a catch 22. They want to support all the service members
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Today I have the privilege to testify in Congress in front of the health subcommittee of energy and commerce regarding the impact of the Change cyberattack on physician practices. My written testimony can be found here:
The link to watch is here:
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The crazy part is that these healthcare systems can close hospitals at will when they aren’t profitable but if the doctors who work there want to own the facility and keep the doors open for their community, they can’t. Why can hospitals own doctors and doctors can’t own
Ascension, a national Catholic health system, has been selling a bunch of hospitals lately, just as Jesus would have wanted. More great details that only
@TaraBannow
could find: Several of Ascension's bigwigs live right by each other on FL's Gulf Coast.
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STAT with another hard hitting run at UnitedHealth’s money grab in medicine. The continued administrative burdens with lack of increasing reimbursement has led to uncertainty in medicine and a desire to sell to corporations who put profits over patients
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PBM Leaders accused of making false statements under oath and asked to change their testimony regarding self-referral and preferential rates
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I got a last minute call to be in DC for an important meeting…. dinner with Speaker Mike Johnson. I took advantage of my time to have meetings with 12 different offices (mix of staff and Members) in my short time there before flying home. We are making progress on meaningful pay
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Rep Carter couldn’t contain his excitement for this hearing. Thankful to be asked to represent physicians on this ever important topic. Also thank you to Rep Carter for his tireless support of physicians and healthcare providers in our fight against large corporations
Health care consolidation decreases patient outcomes and increases patient costs.
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But why didn’t Fondren just open up another hospital down the street and compete like HCA did? Oh yeah because it’s been illegal for physicians to open new hospitals they own for 14 years now due to the lobbying efforts of large hospital systems.
#nothealthcare
𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐡𝐬: 𝐅𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐎𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐬 $𝟐𝟓.𝟔 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐂𝐀 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞
Fondren Orthopedic recently secured a $25.6 million jury verdict in a breach-of-contract case against
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Thankful for the nearly 200 bipartisan members of Congress that signed on to stop physician cuts. This is the short term fix that must get included in budget bills this January. Pay cuts lead to consolidation, reduced access, and increased overall costs
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Must read for today… The
@nytimes
and
@ChrisDHamby
outlined how Multiplan has been coordinating with insurance companies to take significant money (measured in billions) from self-insured companies. What if I told you they have used a different scheme to confuse physicians and
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What’s your life worth? $100? $1000? $10,000? $100,000?
Like it or not, insurance carriers are determining your worth every day. This incredible piece by the NYT shows the egregious expansion of prior authorization. This video should appall you. It should shake you to your
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An impressively detailed and concerning article by
@statnews
@bobjherman
looking at the impact of United owning physician practices. It’s time to break up these monopolies as I testified in front of the
@housebudgetGOP
@HouseBudgetDems
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See my recent statement on the Medicare cuts for 2024. We can no longer sit back and allow others to control our narrative. Join me in the fight to take back our practices and allow physicians to independently practice medicine the way they were trained
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What a night of conversation on health policy. I had the pleasure of eating with
@drdanchoi
and
@DrDiGiorgio
on the issues plaguing physician practices and how we can solve them. We tackled topics like 340B, site neutral, Medicare payment reform, and prior authorization. It’s
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It’s been an honor serving the San Antonio community for the last 10 years. I am beyond humbled to have my own peers nominate and select me as a top doctor in the state every year since I started practice. No more than 5% of the physicians in Texas are selected for this honor.
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Incredibly honored to be invited to speak on behalf of physicians across the country on the impact of the Change Healthcare cyberattack in Congress next week. I am thankful our elected officials have a strong interest in understanding the effects of the outage and find solutions!
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BCBS (and others) complain about the consolidation of anesthesia practices and then announce they will be paying less for anesthesia procedures which will lead to… more consolidation. Another example of the disconnect between payment policy and the value of the care provided.
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@JerryMassey
Jerry…. Hospitals are indeed getting increases in pay and buying up physician practices but the physician fees are not driving healthcare costs as you note in your reply.
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Please keep telling your stories. Our elected officials need to hear the issues physicians are facing and the impact this continues to have on patient care and access. Physicians tend to put their head down and weather every storm without complaining but it’s time to speak up
The past few weeks, my social media algorithm has been flooding my feed with physicians wanting to leave medicine. Here are some of the posts I've seen 🧵
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One year and $10.6B in unfunded costs to overturn claims that should have been paid. How many more examples of waste do we have to show before everyone wakes up to the cost insurance is adding through greed and profits? PBMs, prior auth, vertical integration…
❗️Healthcare providers 'wasted' $10.6B in 2022 overturning claims denials, survey finds
❗️Add to this: costs of clinical labor to adjudicate claims
❗️Delays: it took an average of 3 reviews - each at 45-60 days - for insurers to go from denial to payment
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New policy from UHC just hit. Within days of announcing a Gold Card program to reduce prior authorization, they just increased prior authorizations to multidisciplinary practices (read physician offices) who have physical therapy. This will apply to all Medicare Advantage
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Good news…. Steward physicians aren’t owned by private equity anymore. Insurance companies will be responsible owners and would never behave like the dreaded private equity. Everyone should be celebrating
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Medicare Payment requires reform. Full Stop. Congresswoman Miller-Meeks and I spoke recently about the issues around the fee schedule and reforms that need to take place. Listen to our podcast and join the fight to retain access to high quality care!
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There are still those who doubt that Medicare policies have an impact on access to care. This is real evidence of a concerning trend over the last 20 years, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Absent reform we will see many more consequences
Medicare Payment Crisis Forces Rural Practice Closure:
Haskell family physician C. Wayne Cadenhead, MD, will close his practice on Dec. 21 due to successive Medicare physician pay cuts that left him with no other choice.
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Today I had a visit at my office from Representative Emmer, the Majority Whip. We had a great conversation on the challenges faced by physicians and those in the mental health profession. I am thankful for his time and appreciate his concern for our issues!
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I was honored to testify about the issues physicians faced with regards to the Change cyberattack. All of the panelists felt that consolidation is making cyberattacks more frequent and easier. Congress needs to act to protect patients and physicians caught up in the attacks
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Prior authorization has been weaponized against physicians and patients in the name of bottom line profits masqueraded as arguments against overuse. This article outlines the significant pain felt by patients from unnecessary and inappropriate processes.
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Great explanation of 340B programs. Physicians who are looking for significant changes to the physician fee schedule will need to find ways to pay for the large corrections needed. Redistributing pay away from administration in hospitals is one way to help defray costs
More proof that complex drug pricing rules are just playgrounds for big, rich hospital corporations.
This might seem esoteric, but whether you're a patient or a doctor, it impacts YOU.
The 340B program was designed to help hospitals serving many low-income patients by forcing
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Enjoyed my day meeting with Members of Congress and discussing the issues we face since the Change healthcare attack
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Anthony is spot on but I do think we can fix the fee schedule AND address the inequality in the system. Let’s keep pushing and telling our stories!
By the way if you don’t follow
@DrDiGiorgio
you absolutely need to. He is outstanding at explaining issues and providing common
Just a simple reminder today that Medicare thinks physician work is 30% less valuable today than it was in 2001.
Despite asking us to see more patients, click more buttons and fill out more paperwork, we deserve to be reimbursed 30% less than we did 23 years ago.
If you're
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Thank you to
@DGlaucomflecken
for joining me on the podcast. Listen to his thoughts on being active on social media, using comedy to approach difficult topics, and the importance of physicians advocating for their patients and their colleagues!
In the latest episode of the AAOS Advocacy Podcast, Dr. Will Flanary, better known as
@DGlaucomflecken
by his 4 million followers on social media, explained how he uses medical comedy to entertain and bring attention to key public policy issues.
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UHC releases list of CPT codes for gold card. I don’t see any of the top 10 utilized procedures in Orthopedics. No total joint arthroplasty. No knee scope. No shoulder scope. No spine. Not a real gold card but a good PR project. Only win - most MSK imaging is listed
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Just getting to DC for meetings to advocate for our Orthopedic patients and fellow physicians. We call it House Call on the Mall. Now that the budget is behind us, it’s time to get to work!
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Thankful for the continued coverage of my testimony and the hearing. We need the voice of physicians on the Hill to maintain the pressure on forces trying to drive us out of practice.
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Did you know that when CMS cuts the “Medicare physician fee schedule”, they don’t just hurt doctors? Those same fees are reduced for PAs, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, social workers, and starting next year, counselors. Something must be done!
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@confusedrv
Because of antiquated budget neutrality rules that force the government to pay doctors less every year. It’s leading to massive consolidation where doctors sell their practices to hospitals and insurers to make ends meet…. Which ultimately leads to higher costs
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Had a great weekend talking healthcare and advocating for our issues. It is difficult for physicians in today’s environment but I assure you our voices are being heard. Now is the time to dig in and be at the table to negotiate for a functional healthcare system!
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Thank you to
@WISenRonJohnson
for saying what all of us are thinking. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Our message continues to resonate in the halls of Congress. Let us know how we can help!
“And 80% of physicians used to be independent. Now 80% are part of
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Today the FTC will vote on a potential noncompete ban nationwide. Orthopedic surgeons have significant disagreement on the topic. Do you agree with a noncompete ban for physicians and healthcare professionals? Comment below
Yes, ban noncompetes
1316
No, keep noncompetes
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Thankful for the time in DC with so many members from both sides of the aisle. House Call on the Mall is a can’t miss event for physicians. Put it on your calendar for next year. I met with Reps Burgess, J Joyce, Carter, Hudson, Van Duyne, Guthrie, T Gonzales, Schrier, Del Bene,
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Enjoyed meeting and spending time with Rep Scott Peters (D-CA). He met with us to discuss our key issues on Medicare payment reform, prior authorization, and physician-led hospitals. Thankful to work with Members on both sides of the aisle on fixing our healthcare system!
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I talk about the impact of consolidation on healthcare frequently. Many of you have similar concerns, whether it’s an access issue, cost, or other downstream effect. The Department of Justice wants to hear these complaints and has opened a new portal. Click below!
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All too often doctors are never given the answer key. Instead they must perform the equivalent of hitting a bullseye in darts while the room is pitch black. Information inequality is intentional by insurers to reduce authorizations and frustrate patients and physicians. I am
'Denials must not be a mystery': AMA adopts
#FixPriorAuth
policies
The
@AmerMedicalAssn
adopted new policies on
#priorauth
reform during its annual House of Delegates meeting.
Advocating to ⬆️
•Legal accountability
•Denial transparency
👉
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Amazon can own a hospital but a doctor can’t. Just think about that as you read this article. Time for reform. Repeal Section 6001 of the Affordable Care Act.
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Do you know the many benefits of physician-owned hospitals?
• Provide quality care at low costs
• Help meet growing need for services
• Add competition to the industry
Urge Congress to pass
#HR977
#S470
and repeal the ban on their growth, expansion
#OrthoAdvocacyinAction
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It’s that time of the year… Orthopedic Advocacy Week. This is our grassroots campaign to push our key issues: Prior Authorization, Payment Policy, and Physician Led Hospitals. If you are an orthopedic surgeon, please participate and let Congress hear from you!
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And yet we keep cutting physician pay while creating favorable environments for insurance companies to profit. The savings from fixing this issue (or others) would more than pay for permanently connecting physician pay to inflationary updates.
An updated, and truly damning, MedPAC slide: Medicare Advantage plans are being overpaid by tens of billions of taxpayer dollars *every year* by both attracting healthier, lower-cost people and coding the hell out of everyone who enrolls.
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Attention all health policy docs…. This is your chance to turn your online voice into action. Next month we have our House Call on the Mall. The event is led by Congressman John Joyce, MD, and is fully focused on health policy. The meeting kicks off with a breakfast then a
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Dr. DiGiorgio spot on here (as always!). There are many different types of physician practices. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but the government and regulatory agencies putting their thumb on the scale and pushing towards consolidation is bad for all Americans
I’m an academic hospital-employed physician, and in some cases, this is the best option.
But having it as the only option is problematic. Here’s why:
Increased Costs: Without site neutrality, hospitals and employed physicians charge more for the same services than independent
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Rep Burgess couldn’t be more correct. These models are fundamentally wrong and it is these models that are preventing widespread adoption of physician owned hospitals, which should save our government money. While the CBO refused to comment on policy, their decisions, even when
Competition will lower health costs and increase access to care for American patients.
@USCBO
should recognize physician owned hospitals as a serious policy solution to reduce consolidation.
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I’ve said it several times… MA needs reform. There is significant waste and the cleanup process can create the necessary dollars to pay for needed reforms like physician updates consistent with inflation.
Our article up today on the "Medicare Advantage Paradox" (MA), with
@swoolhandler
& David Himmelstein.
Compared to traditional Medicare, MA is simultaneously *more* costly to the public, yet its enrollees receive *less* care.
How?
Brief 🧵:
No paywall
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You need to read this statement from US Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member
@MikeCrapo
on the challenges physicians are facing from a recent hearing on Medicare payment. If you have some time to listen to the entire committee hearing, please do!
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Thank you for continuing to beat this drum. I hope we can mark the end of your congressional career with a bill that ensures a long term fix to the continuous cuts physicians have taken over the last several decades
The continuous reduction in physician reimbursement poses a significant threat to our health care system.
We must remedy the fee schedule to ensure practices keep their doors open and American patients have access to quality, timely care.
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I can’t wait to see the next several articles from this hard hitting crew. Outstanding work and looking forward to reading what comes next
We
@statnews
are out with a new series, Health Care’s Colossus, that examines the ways UnitedHealth Group has accumulated power and exploited it for profit. It has morphed into a modern-day Standard Oil, exerting dominance everywhere in health care.
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Thank you to Chairman Arrington for putting together this hearing. Everyone is in agreement… we must empower physicians to succeed in private practice and break down the monopolies working to inhibit our progress. Grateful for the leadership on both sides of the aisle in Budget!
Today, Chairman
@RepArrington
and the House Budget Committee will conduct a hearing on "Breaking Up Health Care Monopolies: Examining the Budgetary Effects of Health Care Consolidation."
This hearing will focus on the budgetary impact of increasing health care consolidation and
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Further studies showing consolidation is not helpful in any setting, even value based care.
For ACOs, independent practices out performed other physician ownership/management arrangements.
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