From: Michael A DeVito, DPM
When I looked & compared the so-called data dump from the Wall Street Journal and read the Chicago Tribune articles, it seems to me this was a calculated and well-planned release of information to try and move the American healthcare industry further along into a socialized or Gov’t controlled single payer system.
If in fact, the current fee-for-service system is potentially bordering on a collapse, the doctors are an easy target to blame when it happens. When you are able to attach an individual name onto.....
Editor's note: Dr. DeVito's extended-length letter appears here.
RE: CMS Reveals Medicare Physician Pay Data
From: Bill Deutsch, DPM
Now that the curtain's been pulled back on physician services, it has revealed one obvious fact. The highest billers of Medicare patients were for services any graduate of any podiatry school could perform or rapidly learn in a preceptorship, clinical workshop, or from a mentor. It didn't involve bone surgery, in most cases, and certainly no services warranting a 1, 2, or 3 year residency.
Preventing a graduate of an accredited podiatry school from getting licensure because of a lack of available residencies due to no fault of their own is unwarranted, cruel, and pointless. Obviously, the top billers managed to make a living without forefoot, rear foot, ankle, leg, or knee surgery playing a major or even minor role in their practices.
The powers that be in podiatry need to reflect on what is actually happening in the real world. Name changing of certifying boards may make a wonderfully impressive line on a business card, but variations of podiatry pre-bone surgery days are still the mainstay of most practices; and combined with various tests of muscular, nervous, and circulatory systems makes the bulk of billed services. Why punish a podiatry school graduate because there weren't enough chairs when the music stopped?
From: Michael Forman, DPM, Michael Lawrence, DPM
Dr. Silhanek writes of her thoughts regarding the support for Dr. Lee Rogers in his bid for Congress. She has some intelligent concerns. While we all may not be in his district, we are all governed by Congressional legislation. I vote and support candidates who hold the same values and goals that I possess. I hope my colleagues do the same.
I read the comments of Dr. Silhanek regarding Dr. Rogers and Dr. Wenstrup in their pursuit of political office and feel she made some very good points. I have had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Wenstrup speak at meetings, and have talked to him personally. I have the utmost respect for him personally. I do not agree completely with his political views, but he did get great exposure in podiatric publications such as this one, with it either stated or implied that he would be good for healthcare, good for podiatry!
I realize that he has only been in office a short time, but what has he done? I haven't seen a thing regarding actions on his part that would forward our cause. Has he been out bashing "Obamacare", a popular thing to do? If, like so many other politicians, only critical words being leveled without constructive ideas to fix a broken system, it is all meaningless hypocrisy, in my opinion. If, on the other hand, he has been doing productive things, generating new ideas to remedy that which is broken, I'd sure like to hear about them.
