A Reset For Physicians?

By PAUL KECKLEY Last week, the nominee to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma testified before the Senate Finance Committee. She conveyed a message akin to that of her new boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a physician and House of Representatives veteran: the federal government has made life miserable for providers adding unnecessary complexity and cost. She challenged the value of electronic health records especially in small practices and rural settings and likened interoperability to a bridge too far. And she observed that Medicare and Medicaid, that cover 128 million Americans accounting for $1 trillion in federal spending, should play a leading role in fixing the problems it has created. In their confirmation testimony, both Verma and Price were particularly deferential to the plight of physicians, explicitly associating the profession’s challenges with laws and regulations that frustrate clinicians and compromise patient care. It’s clear the role physicians will play in the post Affordable Care Act era will be a prominent theme under their leadership. The realities are these: 1.    Physicians are respected: Gallup polls have consistently placed physicians ahead of all other professions and just behind nurses and pharmacists. By contrast, Congress and car salespersons are at the bottom. Since 2001, Gallup’s surveys have shown the public’s level of respect for physicians has been relatively unchanged, while othe...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs