 Duval County
Medical
Society
Patient-Centered Health
System Reform Principles
The 2,000
DCMS Physicians are, first and foremost, advocates for our patients; we support
health system reform that strengthens this position.
Patients must retain the ability to choose their own doctor and be
permitted to enter into private contracting arrangements with their physicians.
Furthermore, medical decisions should be made by patients and their
doctors, using the best possible science and research in a “patient-centered
medical home” that does not restrict access to specialty care.
Several factors critical to reform include:
Tort
Reform
Organized medicine supports the need for
meaningful tort reform across the nation.
The estimated cost of defensive medicine is between $99 to $179 billion
dollars per year (’05, AMA). Direct tort reform limited to reasonable limits on
non-economic damages (e.g., pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical
impairment, etc.) would reduce national health care costs.
Meaningful caps are needed!
Eliminating the
Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR)
The SGR will reduce overall Medicare physician
payments by 21% by 2010 under current law (growing to 40% just several years
after). Physicians need everyone to
support of the AMA, FMA, and organized medicine’s efforts to eliminate the SGR,
something that has been simply pushed back annually instead of addressed with a
permanent fix (e.g., rebasing Medicare reimbursement updates to projected
growth).
No Public
Option or Expansion of Medicare
A public option would move the country closer to
a single-payer, government run healthcare system, not the best option for our
patients or the country.
Furthermore, Medicare is a broken system and should not be expanded as a means
to cover the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans.
Representing nearly 40% of public spending for healthcare, Medicare’s
growth is outpacing per capita spending – an unsustainable trend.
Trying to curb that spending growth through physician reimbursement
spending (see SGR) is not a logical solution.
Uninsured Americans –
Insurance Reforms
Physicians support enabling patients to select
and purchase individually owned health insurance.
It is important to note that of the nearly 50 million uninsured,
approximately 9.3 million are not US citizens, a staggering statistic.
An important component of any reform is providing insurance coverage for
pre-existing conditions with guaranteed issue.
Supporting Quality and
Safety
AMA and organized medicine are working on
numerous projects to ensure that physicians lead the efforts to set quality
standards (Comparative Effective Research), leading physicians' efforts to
measurably
improve
patient safety and quality of care, and providing effective programs
and resources to help doctors
promote
healthier lifestyles for their patients (e.g., diet and exercise).
Physician Workforce
Meaningful physician workforce expansion requires
expanded graduate medical education funding for increased residency training
positions. Physician extenders
provide valuable support to the medical team concept, but must always be under
direct physician supervision.
Rationing Care/Futile
Care
As spending continues to increase, the issue of
rationing/futile care will continue to gain attention.
Physicians must lead these discussions to determine the most effective
and caring ways to evaluate this social and financial challenge.
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