Blog and News

Breaking news: A Mayo Clinic division in Arizona stops taking Medicare patients; Example of the results of government price fixing.

Throughout recorded history, price-fixing leads to scarcity of services or products.  It is no different in Medicine.  I have written about this many times in the DJP Updates and spoke of it in interviews and speeches and wrote about it in Op-Ed articles.   As you know, some groups have entered into a Faustian bargain with those who now control the supermajority of votes in Congress and the Administration.  Instead of fighting to restore liberty of contract without penalty, some medical organizations have gone along with the disaster in the details bills being pushed through the House and Senate.  ((He's talking about the AMA, for one, of which he used to be President....))

These organizations keep saying they have a promise from Congress that the onerous SGR/GDP price-fixing formula will be replaced with another price-fixing formula sometime "soon."  The "soon" is no doubt the need to get the "doctor-fix" out of the bills, an exercise in "funny math" to present different numbers to the Congressional Budget Office.  The promise is beginning to sound like vaporware!   But even if another price-fixing formula emerges, this is not a win!  What these groups fail to understand is you can't expect to survive by changing the length of the chains that bind you or giving you an extra serving of food.  Medicine doesn't belong in chains.  No crime has been committed!   One must realize that giving up an essential liberty is non-negotiable.  

The proper way to negotiate is to say that Congress should decide what Congress can pay for services to individuals in government plans and allow the patient and physician to negotiate the rest WITHOUT PENALTY.  But alas, these groups apparently missed that course in negotiating.  Do they believe that genuflecting to those in power with hopes of an increase in benefits will win them prestige or the accolades of history?  This great Country of America was not born with that approach.  This great Country of America was not sustained with that approach. Americans died on battlefields defending our liberty.

And please, don't write and tell me that physicians have the right to privately contract now with all patients. Sure, you can contract in Medicare but you are kicked out for two years for just one contract for one Medicare-covered service!  To tell me physicians have the right to contract in Medicare is akin to telling me a grocery has the right to turn down a demand from a mob member for protection money.  Sure, the grocer can turn down the request but it is highly likely there will be harmful consequences!

It is never to late to cancel the Faustian bargain!  Throughout history, people have made mistakes and later attained greatness by admitting their error and moving forward on principles.  Just read history books.  Just read the Bible.  Stories abound of such redemption.

To review Dr. Palmisano's entire Newsletter, please go to:

 http://www.intrepidresources.com/html/djp_update/1-1-2010.html

Copyright notice (C)Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD