On February 3, 2015, in response to overwhelming physician pushback regarding the Maintenance of Certification program sanctioned by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the American Board of Internal Medicine suspended the Practice Improvement Modules contained in Part IV of their MOC program for two years.
What physicians failed to realize, however, is the minutes required to complete the busywork inherent to “Practice Improvement” exercises were being officially rolled over to the the new “Doc Fix legislation” before Congress (see page 28, line 24 and pages 32-39 of the bill) and robbed from direct patient care as a result.
It is difficult to ascertain if the ABIM leadership knew about the new 263-page doctor payment reform bill when they made their placating announcement, or if the inclusion of these wasteful and inherently meaningless practice improvement exercises is just more insurance industry hogwash permitted by the bill’s clueless authors. But the fact that the bill includes references to quality measures created by “consensus-based entities” like the troubled National Quality Forum and references to “maintenance of certification” should be very concerning to every working US physician. This “doc fix” bill will officially make MOC an expensive mandatory pay-to-play scheme, formally sanctioned by our very own government.
Doctors need to voice opposition to the “Doc Fix” bill now by calling your Senators.
Otherwise, the “fix” will be in for working doctors everywhere.
Congress, are you listening?
-Wes
