ABIM's Dark Side Needs More Light
From the recently filed "Objections to Deadlines due to Completion of Discovery" by Plaintiff Jaimie Salas Rushford, MD in Puerto Rico Federal Court comes public evidence of mafia-like tactics used against physicians by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) to protect their certification testing monopoly:
(Click image to enlarge)
So to summarize some of what has transpired at the (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - December 5, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Source Type: blogs
Watching Our Healthcare Hindenburg Burn
Just before Thanksgiving, 15 physicians were notified they will be replaced by less-experienced and cheaper nurse practitioners at the nearly $1 billion Edwards-Elmhurst healthcare system here in Chicago. Doctors, the article says, were "broadsided," perhaps because they were naive to events that occurred in Springfield, IL earlier this year. Thanks to aggressive lobbying, recent legislation was (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - November 30, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Source Type: blogs
The AMA and ABMS Member Boards: Banking on the Promise of Private Equity
Recently, I was sent a prospectus for a medical device company that caught the eye of a local Venture Capital funding group. On that prospectus was this paragraph for a "vision" of future of a "clinical decision support system:"Collects data from the electronic medical record, medical literature, regulatory warnings and other internet-based public information. Provides analysis of (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - November 24, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Source Type: blogs
Timeline for Justice: ABIM v Salas Rushford
A young resident physician, Jaime Salas Rushford MD, came to New Jersey from Puerto Rico to study for his initial American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) board certification examination with an ACGME-approved Arora "Unusual Board Review" course. He later took his examination and passed, making him officially board certified on 8/20/2009.
Over three years later, he received a letter from Ms. (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - November 15, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Source Type: blogs
Is CMS's Value-Based Healthcare System Already Being Gamed?
Take a look at the address of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) that owns the Maintenance of Certification (MOC ®) trademark that is the subject of at least six anti-trust lawsuits (see here, here, and here for instance) underway because MOC binds physicians to their hospital privileges and insurance payments to made to hospitals on behalf of their employed physicians:
Now look (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - November 12, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Source Type: blogs
MOC ®: It's All About Physician Data
The Facebook –Cambridge Analytica data scandal was a major political scandal in early 2018 when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had harvested the personal data of millions of peoples' Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political advertising purposes. The scandal, first exposed by The Guardian in 2015, revealed that Cambridge Analytica had managed to obtain data on (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - November 9, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Source Type: blogs
What Gives?
WHAT GIVES the American Board of Internal Medicine the ability to take away years of schooling, mountains of prior testing, sleepless nights of residency, and months of study for initial Board certification that we all had to pass?
WHAT GIVES the American Board of Internal Medicine the authority to magically un-certify physicians for not purchasing or their Maintenance of Certification (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - October 31, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Source Type: blogs
What Gives?
WHAT GIVES the American Board of Internal Medicine the ability to take away years of schooling, mountains of prior testing, sleepless nights of residency, and months of study for initial Board certification that we all had to pass?
WHAT GIVES the American Board of Internal Medicine the authority to magically un-certify physicians for not purchasing or their Maintenance of Certification (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - October 29, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: DrWes Source Type: blogs
A Case Study in the Wrong Way to Fix Clinician Burnout
Asking the system to fix the system in regards to physician and nursing burnout is like asking the fox to watch the henhouse.
They have no clue.
Case in point: the recent article published online before print in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) (where else?) preaching a "systems-based approach to clinician well-being and provide better patient care."
What "system" is (Source: Dr. Wes)
Source: Dr. Wes - October 25, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Westby G. Fisher, MD Tags: American Board of Medical Specialties MOC physician burnout Source Type: blogs
