A little more of this, and I’ll reconsider my no-membership status:
CHICAGO, June 27 — The American Medical Association wants third-party payers to put the brakes on pay-for-performance initiatives until there is evidence that such plans benefit patients.
Moreover, after five hours of debate — often over the addition or deletion of a single word — the AMA’s House of Delegates said that it will “actively oppose” any pay-for-performance programs that do not meet the AMA’s five pay-for-performance principles.
Now, follow through. Please.
via DB.
P4P and medicare 1.5% “bonus” – what a joke. The added work that’d be needed to do the reporting isn’t worth 10 times that.
The AMA has become totally irrelevant to most doctors practicing nowadays. I know that sounds pessimistic, and I once had it in me to try to “make a difference” with my bright-eyed, bushy-tailed volunteering into a committee with my state medical society. This is a committee (of which I am still officially a voting member) that focuses on issues in geriatrics and long-term care, since that is a large part of my practice.
My first and last meeting was in a very dark room with lots of mahogany, where I was the youngest person at the table by at least 25 years. Not a single vote wasn’t “tabled” for future discussion. I quickly learned that everyone else was there for the free lunch & to see their geriatric friends, since NONE but me were in practice.
I have often thought of opting out of membership in the medical society and ACP due to their exorbitant dues and limited benefits (none whatsoever for the ACP), but occasionally I call their legal dept and that gives me peace of mind sometimes (e.g. first time I “fired” a patient, for recommended procedures & documentation).
I probably will drop the ACP. They emailed me a bill for dues recently, and I responded:
“like insurance reimbursements, are dues discounted for primary care doctors?”
the reply was a relatively quick and dry “no” from a humorless secretary who probably thinks I make a million dollars a year and am squelching on $500.
so the AMA and ACP can kiss my [insert choice of color] ass.