- Joined
- Jul 27, 2009
- Messages
- 8
- Reaction score
- 0
If everyone wants to know why the AMA is throwing doctors under the bus. Please read below:
EARHARDT: One specific point that almost all the doctors were against, the support of the president's reform by the AMA.
DR. RICHARD ARMSTRONG, GENERAL SURGEON: The AMA signed onto this bill within about a day and a half or two days. The Obama administration announced that the doctors are on our side. Only 17 percent of the physicians in the country are AMA members so the AMA may have officially been on their side, but for the administration to say the doctors are on their side that's also not correct.
EARHARDT: Daniel Palestrant is a practicing physician, the founder of SERMO, an interactive online forum for doctors. With more than 115,000 members, he suggests that the motivation of the AMA to endorse the president's plan might have stemmed from a desire to keep their revenue stream from billing codes rather than representing the voice of the doctors.
DANIEL PALESTRANT, FOUNDER OF SERMO: The codes, these billing codes are known as CPT codes. Current Procedure Terminology codes. And for someone who's not familiar with sort of the health care ecosystem, think about CPT codes kind of like ticker symbols are to Wall Street.
So if you want to interact with the health care system, whether as a doctor, a hospital, or an insurance company, you have to use these codes.
EARHARDT: Dr. Palestrant says when the government first introduced the CPT coats, they entrusted them to the AMA because almost 100 percent of American physicians were members and most of their revenue, about $20 million, came from membership dues.
But once the AMA received sole proprietorship of the codes, their revenue grew to more than $300 million. At the same time, their membership was drastically declining.
PALESTRANT: What the government did, perhaps without realizing it was they created a government monopoly. The ramifications of that have been tremendous. Because now what's happened is that the AMA is able to charge anyone who interacts with the health care system for the use of those codes.
But I think it's been intriguing to all parties why the AMA endorsed this bill after less than 40 hours, why the AMA was willing to support a bill that clearly physicians are so against. And it is troubling that under this bill, the AMA's revenue will explode from these CPT codes will explode.
EARHARDT: One specific point that almost all the doctors were against, the support of the president's reform by the AMA.
DR. RICHARD ARMSTRONG, GENERAL SURGEON: The AMA signed onto this bill within about a day and a half or two days. The Obama administration announced that the doctors are on our side. Only 17 percent of the physicians in the country are AMA members so the AMA may have officially been on their side, but for the administration to say the doctors are on their side that's also not correct.
EARHARDT: Daniel Palestrant is a practicing physician, the founder of SERMO, an interactive online forum for doctors. With more than 115,000 members, he suggests that the motivation of the AMA to endorse the president's plan might have stemmed from a desire to keep their revenue stream from billing codes rather than representing the voice of the doctors.
DANIEL PALESTRANT, FOUNDER OF SERMO: The codes, these billing codes are known as CPT codes. Current Procedure Terminology codes. And for someone who's not familiar with sort of the health care ecosystem, think about CPT codes kind of like ticker symbols are to Wall Street.
So if you want to interact with the health care system, whether as a doctor, a hospital, or an insurance company, you have to use these codes.
EARHARDT: Dr. Palestrant says when the government first introduced the CPT coats, they entrusted them to the AMA because almost 100 percent of American physicians were members and most of their revenue, about $20 million, came from membership dues.
But once the AMA received sole proprietorship of the codes, their revenue grew to more than $300 million. At the same time, their membership was drastically declining.
PALESTRANT: What the government did, perhaps without realizing it was they created a government monopoly. The ramifications of that have been tremendous. Because now what's happened is that the AMA is able to charge anyone who interacts with the health care system for the use of those codes.
But I think it's been intriguing to all parties why the AMA endorsed this bill after less than 40 hours, why the AMA was willing to support a bill that clearly physicians are so against. And it is troubling that under this bill, the AMA's revenue will explode from these CPT codes will explode.
