{"id":304,"date":"2012-01-27T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=304"},"modified":"2012-01-27T17:30:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T21:30:00","slug":"general-surgery-news-spam-in-a-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=304","title":{"rendered":"General Surgery News &#8211; Spam in a Can"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.generalsurgerynews.com\/ViewArticle.aspx?d=Opinions+&amp;+Letters&amp;d_id=77&amp;i=January+2012&amp;i_id=806&amp;a_id=19982\">General Surgery News &#8211; Spam in a Can<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For those of you who have been spending your days operating and taking care of patients instead of keeping up with the latest machinations from central planning to separate you from the fruits of your labor and control of your practice, ACOs are bundles of providers who will receive a global payment for a specific patient encounter, like a cholecystectomy. Who will bill, receive and divide the money is uncertain, except that it won\u2019t be you, the surgeon. The only thing certain is that like diagnosis-related groups, the sustainable growth rate, and relative value units, this latest iteration in health care spending discipline will be gamed and ultimately relegated to the alphabet graveyard of designer cost-containment programs invented by health policy wonks who have an aversion to traditional medicine based on the private doctor\u2013patient relationship. I\u2019ll say this much for them: They are undeterred by their unbroken string of failures. Maybe they\u2019re Cubs fans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black;\">An interesting read, if you want to really appreciate the <a href=\"http:\/\/cmhmd.blogspot.com\/2009\/06\/health-care-reform-old-school.html\">&#8220;old school&#8221;<\/a> approach of a lot of our colleagues (this was sent to me by one). My thoughts:<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Some interesting phrasing choices in this  piece.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8220;<span>outside secular  influence&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8220;<span>the surgical workforce has been  transformed by macroeconomic factors from the ownership class to the labor  class.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8220;<span>Ownership and labor never agree on  anything&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8220;<span>Strip away the thin veneer of status, and the chief of  surgery at Johns Hopkins and the junior surgeon at Kaiser both serve at the  pleasure of a boss, punch a clock and take fire training and corporate  compliance classes.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8220;<span>you had the common values, aspirations and headaches  typical of small-business  owners.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8220;<span>cookbook medicine&#8221; <i>(Really? Who still thinks  this way?)<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><i><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Anyway, it all made me  think of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Slave_morality\" title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Slave_morality\">Master-Slave morality  dichotomy<\/a>. Since Jesus was the epitome of the &#8216;slave&#8217; side of this, I&#8217;m  comfortable with my position, as is, I expect, is <a href=\"http:\/\/cmhmd.blogspot.com\/2009\/12\/interview-with-thomas-russell-for.html\" title=\"http:\/\/cmhmd.blogspot.com\/2009\/12\/interview-with-thomas-russell-for.html\">Dr.  Russell.<\/a><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><i><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"> <\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><i><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"color: black; font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><i><span style=\"font-size: small;\">And it also made me think  of this great  quote:<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"color: black; font-size: small;\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div align=\"left\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-family: Times,&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div style=\"color: black;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">&#8220;A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its  opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents  eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it&#8221;  <\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Max Planck <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8211; Sent using Google Toolbar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>General Surgery News &#8211; Spam in a Can: For those of you who have been spending your days operating and taking care of patients instead of keeping up with the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/?p=304\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;General Surgery News &#8211; Spam in a Can&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-physician-opinion","category-social-justice"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cmhughesmd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}