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AMA President Dr. Nancy Nielsen At The Medicare Policy Summit

February 12th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Expert Interviews, Health Policy
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I attended my very first Medicare Policy Summit conference today – and it was truly riveting (wonk alert). I took copious notes and will do my best to summarize some key points in a series of blog posts. This first post is devoted to the presentation by AMA President, Dr. Nancy Nielsen.

Dr. Nielsen began her lecture with an amusing story. She said, “congressional hearings are pure theatre” and described what she’d experienced three months ago at a meeting with Pete Stark. The conversation went something like this:

Stark: I’m sick of rich doctors driving up in their Porsches saying ‘I’m pulling out of Medicare.’

Nielsen: [Thinking to herself: First witness please?] I drive a GEO jeep.

Then Dr. Nielsen looked out at the Medicare Policy Summit audience and asked, “are there any doctors here?” I raised my hand enthusiastically at the back of the room. Then she responded, “Oh thank God. Well, you know we’re in the lion’s den…”

[Parenthetically, I didn’t see anyone else raise their hand – which is the subject for another conversation.]

What Is The AMA’s Current Agenda?

1. To expand coverage for the uninsured

2. To reform the physician payment system

3. To improve the quality and safety of healthcare

4. To improve public health

What Is The Bee In Nielsen’s Bonnet?

Nielsen explained that the sustainable growth rate is unsustainable. She stated:

“We can’t go through the annual death dance with congress over this. There is another 21% across-the-board cut in Medicare reimbursement scheduled for January 2010. And this cut will affect a group of small business owners (aka physicians) whose reimbursement has not increased since 2001 while their costs have increased 20%.”

What Does Nielsen Propose We Do?

1. Reform the system so that it reimburses for care coordination and prevention

2. Craft solutions based around patients’ needs

3. Rebase the SGR

4. Bundle services to increase value and reduce costs

5. Invest in disease prevention and wellness

6. Use comparative effectiveness to inform clinical decision-making (but NOT as a basis for coverage decisions)

7. Bring physicians into the policy decision-making process

Closing High-Five to Nurses

Dr. Nielsen closed with an amusing anecdote about inauguration day. Apparently she was standing in the sidelines of the parade route where Biden got out of his limo to greet the crowd. He gave a big hug to some nurses standing next to her and said, “I love nurses. They’re so much better than doctors.” Dr. Nielsen then had the opportunity to introduce herself to Biden and he responded, “Doctors saved my life, but nurses gave me the will to live.”

Medical Tourism: Dr. Val Chastised By The American Medical Association

December 16th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Audio, Expert Interviews
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Dr. Joseph Heyman

Alright I admit it, that was a rather provocative title. The truth is that at the end of a recent interview with Dr. Joseph Heyman, the chair of the board of trustees of the AMA, I was in fact chided for having left full time clinical practice. Dr. Heyman was rather avuncular in his tone when he stated,

You are robbing patients of the opportunity to have a good clinician like you involved in their care. I guess it reflects badly on our profession that the best and brightest are making alternative career choices – practicing clinical medicine is becoming unbearable.

No amount of protest on my part (about my volunteer work at Walter Reed) would convince Dr. Heyman that I hadn’t abandoned my profession to some degree. And it touched a chord with me too – because taking care of patients is very gratifying for me in many ways. It was with a heavy heart that I chose to become a medical journalist instead.

And so back to the interview with Dr. Heyman. We had an interesting discussion about the concept of medical tourism:

You may listen to our conversation here, or read my summary below.

[Audio:http://blog.getbetterhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/heyman.mp3]

Dr. Val: Is medical tourism about people coming to the U.S. for care, or about patients leaving the U.S. to get more affordable care elsewhere?

Dr. Heyman: Historically, medical tourism has been about patients coming to the United States to get high quality care. Nowadays, people are realizing that there are wonderful places overseas where they can seek treatment. If they don’t have a very exotic illness, or require a highly specialized procedure, they can get appropriate care overseas. Hip replacements are a good example of a standard procedure that can be performed without too much difficulty. It wouldn’t be as much of a draw for patients who need hip replacements to come to the U.S. Read more »