DO DOCTORS EXPIRE IN 10 YEARS?

"Do doctors expire in 10 years" is the title of the lead article in AAPS news from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Vol. 70, No. 5, May 2014. Our readers may enjoy comparing this piece with items from The Weinmann Report, www.politicsofhealthcare.com, "How Physicians Eat their Young," 12 Feb 2014 and "Money and Medicine," 21 July 2012.

The subject is recertification and reveals how boards, associations, and other organizations may use Maintenance of Certification (MOC) to enrich themselves and their organizational coffers at the expense of their own members. The AAPS poses this theoretical question: if "one day a highly trained, experienced physician may be board certified -- and the next day, after examination results are revealed or a deadline for MOC compliance passes, he may be decertified and unemployable. In that one day, could he have become demented, or fallen behind in keeping up with this field?"

The article points out that "resolutions against MOC have been enacted recently by the American Medical Association and the state medical societies of New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, New York, and North Carolina."

In the same issue, Larry Huntoon, MD, PhD, points out that the American Academy  of Neurology (AAN) was to feature an MOC International Session but did not feel required to file a conflict-of-interest disclosure from Lois Margaret Nora, MD, CEO of ABMS. In 2012 Nora earned about $330,000 in compensation from ABMS and associated organizations according to the ABMS form 990."

AAN reportedly told AAPS that no such disclosure was necessary because AAN did not give CME credits for attendance at this session.

Once again we see an assault on physician autonomy, this time from within, from persons who benefit financially by imposing MOC requirements on hapless physicians whose evolving practices may not meet the confinements of MOC predators.

Additional References

Journal of American Physicians and Dentists, V. 18, # 3, Fall, 2013, "Maintenance of Certification (MOC) : the elite Agenda for Medicine," Christman, Kenneth, "the elite medical establishment correctly foresaw that there as a huge treasure in the medical certification  business").

Journal of American Physicians and Dentists, V. 16, #2, Summer, 2011, "Board Certification -- a Malignant Growth," Dubravic, Martin, MD.