Medical Groups Come Out Swinging Against the Health Law

Can the health law and the preservation of the doctor/patient relationship go hand-in-hand?

According to a number of medical groups and healthcare stakeholders across the country, the answer is a high-decibel “No!”

In fact, a coalition of medical professionals—led by America’s Medical Society (AMS), a competitor of the American Medical Association (AMA)—has banded together to fight the health law as it currently stands. Some of the other medical groups taking the same stance include the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), the American Academy of Private Physicians (AAPP) and Doctors for Patient Care (Docs4PC).

And the opposition doesn’t end at health reform.

They also are taking the AMA to task, accusing the organization of playing to the government to ensure the continued flow of financial incentives (based on mandated U.S. medical billing codes). Even more disconcerting, they say, is that by supporting the health law, the AMA is effectively choosing the almighty dollar over the importance of the doctor/patient relationship.

To that end, Dr. Marcy Zwelling-Aamot, Chairman of the Board and former President of the AAPP; and AMS Founder and President Dr. Adam Frederic Dorin, have created the “Ten Commandments for Healthcare Reform,” which lays out the crux of the groups’ position that all standards of care and medical regulations should be established and governed strictly within the medical system. The commandments address everything from safeguarding patient privacy and the freedom to choose their own healthcare providers, to ensuring payment of benefits is kept between the payer and the insurer.

As of press time, the AMS and supporting medical groups are in the process of planning “The Coalition Summit of Independent Physicians—Protecting the Doctor-Patient Relationship in an Era of Government Mandates,” scheduled for the spring in San Diego (http://americasmedicalsociety.com/doctor-coalition-challenges-the-ama-and-the-white-house-on-obamacare/). The conference is reported to be aimed at constructively challenging Obamacare and the AMA over the Affordable Care Act from the physicians’ point of view, along with producing a corresponding white paper.

Do you think this united group of medical professionals and stakeholders can effectively drive further change—in the direction of the free market?