|
|
 |
Under Revision
For Replacement:
The Health
Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 Omits Due Process of Law
The Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 Omits Due Process of Law
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Setting Up An Accountable Care Organization.
How Did Doctors
Become Serfs? Corporate-Speak
5 Recent "Nonprofit Hospital" Compensation- Controversies.
Nonprofit-hospitals-strike-it-rich-wall WSJ
Website Protected
By Copyright
| Safety <=> "Clean-Hands" |
|
|
| Peer-Review. Click. |
| To Mahogany Row--Where |
|
|
| our Medicare-taxes go... |
Incentive
1986 saw PATRICK v. Burget and passage
of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act. Dr. Verner S. Waite incorporated The
Semmelweis Society in California after winning over $500,000 in a case of collusive, defamatory peer review-libel by two competitors
in control of the Tissue Committee (1) at St. Francis Hospital, Downey, California (2). In
2003 he participated in its re-incorporation by R.M. Bard M.D. J.D., FACS, H.E. Butler III M.D., FACS,
and C.W. Hinnant M.D., J.D., DABU with "International" added to stress impartial peer review when deciding where medical
practice is both scientific and safe for doctor and patient (3). The rising debt incurred by students in
the USA today makes choice of college, medical school, and practice location critical considerations.
-------
(1) Collusive
defamation is racketeering. The RICO Act may apply to medicine, particularly corporate control of medicide, although R.I.C.O. was
written for the Mafia, not medicine. Even if RICO applies to medicine, help will come ten years after the
doctor-shortage has drowned the profession in this country.
(2) Most Medicare-hospitals
claim to be not-for-profit. Salaries paid with Medicare taxes to such hospital administrators--millions of dollars/year
in some cases--belie the assertion of being not-for-profit. Some hospital administrators are paid over $6,000,000/year.
How much care would that buy?
(3) The
doctor-shortage in the USA is predicted to reach 200,000 doctors by 2020, according to Dr. Richard Cooper of the University
of Pennsylvania. College can cost $240,000. Medical school can cost $326,000. Defense against
sham peer review can cost $1,000,000. Such costs raise the question whether Americans aspiring to be doctors
will emigrate from the Land of the Free. These considerations apply
irrespective of the fate of the Affordable Care Act.
Gulag Amerika or Land of The Free?
Safety 2
| No Due Process = |
|
| = No Safety |
| Setup: An Accountable |
|
| Care Organization |
| A Legal "Tsunami": |
|
| HCQIA's Immunity To Lie |
| Administrator paid $ 3,500,000 |
|
|
| in Medicare tax-exempt "non-profit" hospital? |
ooooo
Our taxes support most hospitals, so compare the tax-supported hospitals near you: See www.CharityNavigator.org and www.GuideStar.org.
Where does our money go? When you push the button to ask for help at 2 A.M., is the salary for the nurse at home asleep: How
many "strategic" administrators asleep at home at night do we want to pay? We can change tax laws, both state and federal.
It's still our country...unless corporations really are people.
j
| Weinmann Report: |
|
| Medical Politics |
| Hospital Administrative |
|
| Salaries: Indefensible. |
ACO: Accountable To Middlemen Camp-Followers, Unaccountable To Patients and Doctors.
A hospital without due process in peer-review is unsafe
for patients and doctors. Medicare should hold such hospital's Medicare Part A-payment
in Escrow pending a ruling in an administrative court with due process to protect the rights of all, so that
doctors, patients, or honest administrators are not forced to change hospitals, countries, or careers. Any hospital
which derives an essential portion of income from taxation is de facto a public utility: There is no reason to pay million-dollar
salaries to MBA's claiming to work while they sleep when Medicare is running out of money: We cannot afford Mahogany
Row. Let such admnistrators work in "1%"- hospitals which do not take public funds. A similar argument applies
to insurance company executives and to the Medicare meritocracy: How cost-effective are those who administer it:
Where is an indepenent study? Aren't all these people the "1%": when they become patients themselves, they also depend
on the "99%" to respond when they push the button at 2 A.M.. We are all patients.
Administration costs ~31% in some American hospitals, in contrast to
14% in Canada and 5% in England. These differences would pay for a lot of care without adopting the aspects of Canadian
and British care we do not seek. This is not an argument for government-medicine but an argument for prudence in deciding
not to limit one's practice to one hospital without iron-clad protections of due process in all matters, as defined by the
Supreme Court: See the editorial on Due Process in the column to the left. Doctors should have two competing hospitals
in which to practice. Patients can use public web sites which publish administrators' salaries, for example CharityNavigator.org
and GuideStar.org to see where their Medicare money goes.
If a hospital attacks whistleblowers for patient-safety, such as with
punitive peer-review for profit (See, for example, the ongoing case of Anthony Colantonio M.D., J.D., FACS), email Dr. Blake
Harrison Moore at (BHMFACS@hotmail.com), Dr. Robert Weinmann (RLWeinmann@Yahoo.com), Dr. Eric Grosch at (Eric.Grosch@gmail.com), Dr. Huntoon at www.AAPSonline.org, or Dr. H. E. Butler III at (HButler@pol.net). If you are a doctor, associate with hospitals which honor due process
as defined by the Supreme Court. If you cannot find such a hospital in this country, look internationally. Other
countries appear not to have this problem to the same degree we do.
2. By-laws, Semmelweis Society International, Incorporated in 2003, in Tennessee, by Ralph M. Bard
MD, JD, FACS, Charles William Hinnant MD, JD, DABU, and Henry E. Butler III MD, FACS with Dr. Waite's participation.
5. 2010: PPACA ("ObamaCare") Protects
No Doctor From Libelous Peer-Review
"How Courts Are Protecting Unjustified Peer Review Actions Against Physicians by Hospitals." N.Kadar MD, JD, LLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULy5vjcGuDc
"Physicians who are entrusted with the care of their patients can see their professional
careers destroyed if they dare to challenge a hospital's practices. When a whistle-blowing physician is retaliated against,
it threatens not only the physician's livelihood, but the care of all patients. This is a case, therefore, that affects every
patient and potential patient in America." --
Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School
11111111111111111111111111111111
| Verner S. Waite M.D., FACS |
|
|
| Washington, D.C. ~2005. Click picture. |
| Due process before HCQIA. |
|
|
| Click picture. |
With no due process under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (1986) and the Patient Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act (2010), there is no accountability or career-integrity for doctors in the USA. The
cost of medical education is rising. If you were in college, would you incur a medical school
debt up to $300,000 without access to due process of law, even if you were associated with an "Accountable Care Organization?" Why
are doctors denied due process in the Land of the Free? To attract doctors despite these two flawed federal laws, may
states, cities, and counties offer doctors due process in peer-review, by contract and via by-laws? If so, then these places
may overcome the doctor-shortage.
2003:
Semmelweis Society International Incorporated
George Holmes, Treasurer and Editor of web site.
2009:
Drs. Holmes, Moore, Butler enter court in Tennessee on
behalf of Semmelweis Society International Incorporate
to recover stolen funds and web site.
Courts Protect Unjustified Peer Review Actions Against Physicians
by Hospitals
PPACA: Setting
Up An "Accountable Care Organization":
How Did Doctors Become Serfs?
"Six of my cases were brought up for review by a tissue committee controlled by competitors. A nurse (sic), employed
by the Saint Francis Hospital, testified that I had the highest rate of complication. Why such testimony was admitted
is a matter of some interest, in itself. Liability for bearing false witness is an important related matter, in itself,
and falls under the topic of immunity. Under our gracious new laws, I would not be able to win $500,000 today
were a nurse again caught committing libel."
Verner S. Waite M.D., FACS
We know of two successful
cases before passage of HCQIA in 1986:
and one successful case since HCQIA of 1986:
Setting Up An Accountable Care Organization
234 More Cases of Sham Review
Setting Up Accountable Care Organizations
"The
only winning move is not to play." -- Matthew Broderick, 1983
Launching Accountable Care Organizations-Proposed Rule for Medicare Shared Savings Program
Bait and Switch: Understanding The System:
Secret Panels
Without Due Process Peer-Review, "Accountable Care" Corporations Remain
Unaccountable, Unsafe For Doctor and Unsafe For Patient:
"Physicians versus Hospitals as Leaders of Accountable Care Organizations"
"Setting Up An Accountable Care Organization"
The ACO Model — A Three-Year Financial Loss?
"Six
of my cases were brought up for review by a tissue committee controlled by competitors. A nurse (sic), employed by the Saint
Francis Hospital, testified that I had the highest rate of complication. Why such testimony was admitted is a matter of some
interest, in itself. Liability for bearing false witness is an important related matter, in itself, and falls under
the topic of immunity. Under our gracious new laws, I would not be able to win $500,000 today were a nurse again
caught committing libel." Verner S. Waite M.D., FACS
The Health Care Quality Improvement
Act of 1986 deprives doctors of due process; the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)
also fails to protect doctors as citizens: Without due process, "Accountable Care Organizations" are unaccountable. Medical
school debt has made becoming a doctor in the USA problematic; Congress made doctors into commodities. The
solution is contracts and by-laws with due process so that doctors speaking on behalf of patient-safety in corporate settings
are not destroyed. There is nothing new or subtle about this. Although the liklihood of obtaining such contracts
nationally is low, there is a local solution: Communities with a doctor-shortage can restore
the due process which our corporate Congress disregarded in 1986. If nothing is done, ambulance
rides will lengthen as hospitals close.
Peer Review Defense Costs over $500,000; student debt approaches $400,000:
As doctors' salaries fall, when will medical school become unaffordable?
"Getting Around The Corporate
Practice Act" The Weinmann Report
Affordable Care/Patient Protection Act No Better Than Health Care
Quality Improvement Act 1986
Physicians who protest patient safety problems at their hospitals risk
being fired for "disruptive" behavior. What can doctors and patients together do? Answer:
Compare hospitals.
Stephen Whitlock Smith M.D., FACP, FACEP,
LTC USAR (Ret.)
H.C.Q.I.A. of 1986 Legalized Libel
Affability: Desirable Physician Attribute,
or Synonym for Mediocrity?
How Courts
Are Protecting Unjustified Peer Review
Actions Against Physicians by Hospitals
Incentive: Extra Pay For Extra Work, Responsibility,
Liability
|
|
| Suspension, no hearing. The rule of law in the land of the free. |
Unbiased Peer Review For Safety of Doctor and Patient
| "HOSPITAL PEER REVIEW OF PHYSICIANS: |
|
|
| DOES..IMMUNITY INCREASE RISK OF...? |
dd
"Let
us raise a standard to which
the Wise and Honest can repair."
George
Washington
"Peer-Review with Clean Hands
"
Verner
S. Waite M.D., FACS
| "Bundled Payment" |
|
|
| Click here. |
| Open content |
|
|
| in a new window. |
| Click to open in a |
|
|
| new window. |
| Accountable Care |
|
|
| Organizations: Confusion is unaccountable. |
6
| Professor Starr |
|
|
| Click here. |
"You have to look at Massachusetts for state mandated
insurance. Unfortunately, the level of insurance reimbursement for patients under safety net coverage plans is at the level
of Medicaid or less. Consequently communities which can support a two tier system of outpatient care often have inadequately
funded and sparsely supported local secondary hospitals and have a tendency to refer complex non-emergency care to tertiary
academic centers better able to absorb inpatient care losses. Moreover, once strong multi-specialty groups in these communities
have tended to eliminate general surgeons from their staffs because of an inability to meet their salary expectations and
traditional costs of living, forcing these individuals into hospital employment where they often must substitute for GI endoscopists
who are dropping off hospital staffs for the safety of their own endoscopy centers. Internists who in the past represented
the heart and soul of these groups have become hospitalists, intensivists or ER shift workers for their community hospitals.
Pediatricians, cardiologists, nephrologists and orthopedists now control the groups. Dentists laugh at them all. RN's
who are dependent on local community hospitals for employment have become administrators and chart checkers at their local
hospitals but for the most part have been forced to unionize to maintain their jobs and incomes. They tend to rule the roost
at most community hospitals, having jumped physicians in the hospital pecking order. Who could have foreseen this?"
-- A Doctor
The Quantitative Easing
tt
t
t
| Physicians |
|
| v. Hospitals. |
| ACO: Doctors |
|
| vs. Hospitals? |
| IPAB is |
|
| like Medicare. |
| Is ObamaCare |
|
|
| Fiscally-fit? |
"There is no federal statute that requires
peer review committees to observe due process, which the Supreme Court has defined as (1) giving written notice of the actions
contemplated, (2) convening a hearing, (3) allowing both sides to present evidence at the hearing, and (4) having an independent
adjudicator."
Segall J.D./Pearl M.D.
Letter from a doctor regarding peer review by-laws. Click here.
"Our government
is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious.
If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it
invites anarchy." Louis Brandeis J.D., United States
Supreme Court
pt
t
r
"Our government is the potent,
the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government
becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy." Louis
Brandeis J.D., U.S. Supreme Court
"The failure to change and improve the
current system will continue to result in the loss of qualified and skilled physicians from their profession due to others
who maliciously pervert the current peer review process for their own selfish motives." Bryan Hall
HCQIA: Success or Failure. Bryan G. Hall
2. 2009: Dr. Serrano, a federal research grant-holder AND a Hopkins surgery-resident, was fired, allegedly summarily according
to his lawsuit: Does federal funding compel due process for residents in the Land of the Free? Our taxes at work: Doesn't
Medicare fund graduate medical education? If so, interns and residents are federal employees. If so, why aren't they protected
by federal laws?
| Dr. Serrano: Allegedly |
|
|
| Accused of whistle-blowing, then allegedly fired without due process at Hopkins. |
| Dr. Waite, ~2005 |
|
|
| Please click here. |
Require
Due-Process In Peer-Review For Medicare Payment.
| "Getting In The Way |
|
|
| of A Doctor's Calling." Click. |
| The politics of competitive peer- |
|
|
| review gags doctors. Click here. |
| Video message by |
|
|
| Lawrence Huntoon M.D., Ph.D, FAAN |
| Peer-Review Injustice |
|
|
| means doctor-shortages. |
~25% of new doctors are from other countries: We face a shortage of ~200,000 doctors by 2020 (Richard Cooper M.D., FACP, University
of Pennsylvania). Hospital boards competing to attract doctors can respect due process in peer-review, because our corporate
Congress passed a law (HCQIA of 1986) which ignores it. Please click here.
| Complex hospital-bills explained: |
|
|
| Click here. |
| Legal analysis of HCQA: |
|
|
| Peer-review for profit. |
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
| Eleanor D. Kinney, J.D., M.P.H |
|
|
| Click picture. |
| Click to ~54 cases. |
|
|
| S. Twedt@post-gazette.com: 412-263-1963. |
Medicare can set impartial peer-review
as the Condition of Reimbursement.
fpp
M.D.
First or J.D. First? As long as due process is denied to doctors, you may need both degrees: Such is
the cost of corporate control of "The Land of The Free."
| Dr. Chassin, why accredit these |
|
|
| administrators without a fair trial? Call 800-994-6610. |
Dr. Chassin, before you became Joint Commission-President,
your "deeming organization" was involved with these hospitals (vide infra 1-5). Should they be re-accredited without
addressing these issues? Should the alleged perpetrators be accountable before re-accreditation? If not, why should taxpayers support any tax-exemption for these hospitals as compared
to other hospitals? What should we do when administrators place
profit before patients' safety? Shouldn't only practicing doctors be administrators, and for limited terms
to prevent conflict of interest? Doctors have a license to protect, and hospital administrators who are not doctors
are...unlicensed. What about the Joint Commission as compared with other deeming organizations?
Doctors have a license
to protect, so any doctor-administrator with a license to protect and doctor involved in cases such as these would
face charges of ethical violations and possible loss of a medical license:
1. ~40 intentional deaths:
Columbia, Missouri.
Administrator:
Mr. Kurzejeski
~40 deaths: Congressional testimony gives names. Click here.
2. 2 administrative/predicted/preventable
deaths in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Administrator:
3. 1 administrative/predictable death
of an infant, South Hill, Virginia.
Administrator:
4. 4 Intentional deaths, South Carolina. Two
cases are in court.
Administrator:
Google Search: Williamsburg Regional Hospital
5. 1 Administrative-Preventable Death,
Hempstead, L.I., New York.
Mercy Hospital
paid ~ 9 million dollars. Administrator:
Are you a Medicare taxpayer? Click here to look up how much tax-exemption Mercy pays its administrators to sit on their sinecures--isn't
Mercy a Medicare hospital? A religious hospital? Compare Mercy with your hospitals: Are your Medicare taxes well-spent at
your hospitals?
Community peer reviews hospital; COO resigns. Compare this hospital-corporation with your hospital-corporation or your church-hospital
corporation. Donate accordingly: Require that due-process peer-review protect doctors who protect patients, or take your family
to another hospital after discussing the matter with your doctor. Hospitals average 5% profit, according to the Wall Street
Journal, so just a few patients make a big difference...Click here.
Since corporations are persons under the law, here is an oath for conscientious MBA's.
"Quis
custodiet ipsos custodes?" Juvenal
No administrator attacking doctors for protecting patients deserves a tax-deduction: Joint
Commission, take notice: This logic applies to you. Hospital administrators take public money in the form
of Medicare, Medicaid, and a tax-deduction.
Situations such as the 5 cases above are the ultimate
"Incident Report"; they deserve ongoing public exposure on behalf of permanent, independent accountability for patient-safety
as to why preventable
deaths are not prevented. We are not talking about medical judgment,
but about administrative cover-up of crime and malice: There appears to be, within a minority of hospitals, a
collusive corporate-culture of reprisal (i.e. racketeering as in R.I.C.O., the Racketeer-Influenced Corrpupt
Organizations Act intended for the Mafia) against doctors who blow the whistle on misconduct. Should taxpayers exempt these
5 "non-profits" from taxation? We are all patients.
Are you, Joint Commission, failing to protect the tax-paying (and tax-exempting) public, by refusing to "excuse from
public service" administrators who commit these acts? By declaring these doctors disruptive, are you endangering
patients by disrupting care yourselves with your consumption of 31.4% of our hospital budgets for administration:
"Quo usque tandem abutere, Catalina, patientia nostra?" Marcus Tullius Cicero
| Integrity requires Due |
|
| Process of Law, but ... the |
| HCQIA of 1986 legalized |
|
| libel, leaving us with... |
| these sham peer-review |
|
| tactics. Click all pictures. |
| Click here to cases. |
|
No Due Process = Doctor-Shortages. There is a shortage of U.S. doctors. ~25% of new doctors come from other countries.
England and Canada spend 5% and 14% of hospital-budgets on administration; we spend up to 31.4% of our hospital budget on
administration. This is not sustainable.
| For-Profit Committees... |
|
|
| Partial To Profit. |
| What, doctor-shortage? |
|
| Click here. |
| What, student debt? |
|
| Click here. |
"...update estimated that in 2033, physicians who opt for the standard 10-year
loan repayment plan would see half of their after-tax earnings going to loan repayment. This could deter promising students from considering medical school..." AAMC Reporter, Jan. 2008
h
chf
f
f
f
f
Administrators socialize
with Chiefs of Staff. Whistleblowers are collusively discredited and destroyed (cf. RICO, the Racketeer-Influenced
Corrupt Organizations Act). A National Data Bank precludes re-location by denying due process, and thereby destroys
whistleblowers' careers: Whistle-blowers cannot be saved unless someone regards denial of due process as a medical tragedy
and takes on established interests, including hospitals, including even some church-hospitals. All politics is local,
and with the National Data Bank, local politics becomes national. Dr. Verner S. Waite founded the Semmelweis Society
in 1986 after winning $514,000 from two doctors who persuaded a nurse employed by the (Medicare tax-supported?) St. Francis
Hospital, Downey, California to commit libel on their behalf. Dr. Waite was a Catholic who compared the Church's cover-up
of child-abuse with the denial of due process in American medicine. Other church-corporations are involved in sham peer-review
(i.e. SDA in Hanford, California against Dr. Lyle Griffith), but sham review involves everyone, not just hospitals or churches.
We are all patients. Churches and hospials are not patients: Corporations are not people, although under U.S.
law they are persons. This distinction is why U.S. students may have to become doctors in other countries, pending an
amendment to U.S. law by the finest Congress corporate money can buy. Remember, this was a free country, and we have
only ourselves to blame for this situation. All animals are free; some animals are... As foreign doctors immigrate
to the USA, they will be similarly treated and disappointed that in the Land of the Free, MBA's and JD's control MD's.
The doctor-shortage in the Land of the Free will continue until Congress amends HCQIA of 1986. Congess will not amend
its own law...
1986 ::: HCQIA = Legal Libel
i
| 19-yo girl dies in ICU: |
|
| Administrator suspends whistleblower without a hearing: Could this be your hospital? Click here. |
| Letter to Joint Commission re Mercy Hospital's |
|
| risk for doctors and patients. Click. |
| No Access To Care |
|
| The Doctor-Shortage. Click here. |
p
p
| Dr. Christiansen, VA Hospital, |
|
|
| Missouri. Please click picture. |
| Cost of ethical medicine |
|
|
| in a corporate culture: Your career, so consider JD before--or instead of--MD. Tel. 412 263 1963. |
| HCQIA made hospitals |
|
|
| unsafe for doctor and patient. Click here. |
Amy Sorrel
AMA News
6 November 2009
Dear Ms. Sorrel;
A famous aphorism is that
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". The medical world's corollary is that "One hospital administrator's
disruptive physician is another man's patient advocate".
As President of SSI, I help represent the interest's
of physicians who have been targeted for retribution for most commonly protecting our patients. Dr. Butler as a former president
of and founder of SSI has worked tirelessly to protect physicians so victimized. He put you in contact with Dr. Colantonio
who has been suspended for questioning the actions of an untrained and unsupervised physician extender who misplaced a tube
thoracostomy ultimately killing a patient. I had my hospital privileges suspended after reporting the deaths of multiple patients
to the State of SC at the hands of a "mercy killer" nurse. My surgical career has been interrupted for the great and radical
offense of advocating as a physician the radical concept that as a doctor "thou shalt not kill" is a reasonable concept. These
actions which at times stand in the way of corporate profit can result in the end of a doctor's medical career by being labeled
as "DISRUPTIVE". It is inherently wrong, but it remains standard operating procedure in Board Rooms across America.
We may all agree that people who are deranged, abusive, unprofessional or serially antisocial may in fact be
"disruptive", but the current state of affairs that without due process and with near absolute civil immunity, allows one
businessman to arbitrarily and capriciously label another businessman as "disruptive" and with impunity to destroy the second
business based upon mere allegations without proof is unfair, unjust, and un-American. It is also the law of the land. At
any time a hospital CEO can with impunity utter the phrase "disruptive physician" and blackball any doctor who might stand
in the way of corporate profit, such that once so listed and placed on the National Practitioner Data Bank, that physician
is unlikely to ever practice their career again. Henry Waxman's dirty little law known as HCQIA is so utilized to exploit
physicians and engage in serial mafioso-like quasi-extortion measures to keep doctors in line and create a functional state
of terror where any doctor who would dare have the audacity to speak up for their patient, and against corporate profit, does
so at great personal risk. This is medicine's ultimate dirty little secret-but again one man's "disruptive physician" is another
man's "patient-advocate".
Please call if you would like to discuss further.
Sincerely,
BLAKE
HARRISON MOORE, MD FACS CIME
President Semmelweis Society International
ph-803-749-7497; c-803-447-4565
| Rakesh Wahi M.D.: New Amicus Curiae |
|
|
| From AAPS To Supreme Court. Click here. |
If safety is the purported
purpose of peer review, why does HCQIA grant immunity to commit libel even though collusive libel is racketeering under R.I.C.O.,
the Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act written to contol organized crime? No one has applied RICO to medicine,
including Medicare-fraud and competitive conspiracy to commit libel at medical peer-review.
Abetting or covertly
acquiescing to peer-review with collusive libel is grounds for publicly investigating:
1. The ethics, professional
memberships, and state-licensure of Peer-Review Committee-
doctors. They are immune from prosecution but not from meeting ethical standards,
and no new doctors will be attracted to a hospital made unsafe by collusive
competitive defamation-for-profit;
2. The tax-exemption
of the Joint Commission;
3. The certification
and tax-exemption of the hospital in question;
4. The qualification
ocf the hospital in question for continued Medicare re-imbursement,
pending adjudication by a court of law which observes due process, in contrast to a
Peer-Review Committee which does not respect due process; and,
5. The advertising
claims made by the administrator to prospective new doctors
comparing by-laws of competing hospitals.
A Medicare-supported hospital
wastes tax money when it squanders Medicare funds on public relations. A challenge would consume the public relations
department because, of course, peer-review bias is NOT the intent of HCQIA, even though HCQIA fails to require due process.
In this internet age, those who abuse peer-review can be followed from one hospital to another. See the ~243 cases listed
on this web site, with particular attention to cases in which patients died and the whistle-blowing doctors were declared
disruptive and then destroyed: SHALLER, MOORE, COLANTONIO. Safety for patients and
safety for doctors are related: With no due process in peer-review, American medicine has been unsafe
for doctor and patient since passage of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986. As they choose a career, American
college students understand that other countries seem not to have this problem, such that it is safer to study
medicine here and to practice medicine in other English-speaking countries, pending:
1. Adoption of due
process by local hospital boards competing for doctors; or,
2. Amending HCQIA
to require due process in all matters, including peer-review; or,
3.
An Executive Order:
"As
a matter of patient-safety, due process in peer-review as defined by the
United States Supreme Court is hereby made a Condition of Reimbursement
for doctors accepting Medicare and for any
institution accepting Medicare."
| How doctors became serfs. |
|
|
| Please click here. |
A doctor's career can be destroyed
for protecting patients: See Dr. Colantonio's case. Senior physicians, some no longer in practice, are not
defending his right to due process; the Joint Commission and the American College of
Surgeons are silent: MBA's and JD's control MD's. Congress gave a tax-exemption to non-profit
hospitals, yet hospital lawyers attack doctors who protect patients. Why should hospitals have a tax-exemption
when they spend Medicare taxes? What justifies an exemption and
reimbursement, if not safety? Is Mercy Hospital unsafe for patients because it is unsafe for doctors? Tax-supported
administrators appear to collude to defame doctors, raising the possibility of violating the Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act written to control organized crime. "There is no federal statute that requires peer review committees to
observe due process, which the Supreme Court has defined as giving written notice of the actions contemplated, convening a
hearing, allowing both sides to present evidence at the hearing, and having an independent adjudicator." Scott Segall J.D., William Pearl M.D. Businessmen who control local hospital
Boards can attract patients back to their hospital by respecting due process in by-laws.
Read the letters (above) regarding a death at Mercy Medical Center (Rockville Centre, Long Island) and the destruction of
Dr. Colantonio's career there: U.S. medicine is not safe for doctors. College students, follow this case closely as you decide
whether to risk your future in a career the best Congress corporate money can buy has denied Constitutional rights to due
process. Read the article by a lawyer and a doctor on the need for impartial peer-review.
H.C.Q.I.A., the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of
1986, renders U.S. medicine unsafe for doctors: The combined risks of debt and career-destruction when declaring for
patient-safety and of being pronounced 'disruptive' are too great. See the cases below, beginning with the case of Dr.
Colantonio at Mercy Medical Center, Rockville Centre, Long Island. College students can follow these developments
and act on their implication: Without due process, neither the study nor the practice of medicine is safe, as ~243
cases on this web page demonstrate. Other countries appear not to
have our problem; the USA has a doctor-shortage. To protect patient and doctor, the President should require
due process as a Condition of Reimbursement.
Organizations such as the Joint Commission claiming tax-deductions in the public interest should study these cases at their meetings
and vote whether to protect doctors who protect patients.
Most hospitals accept public money: They
are de facto public utilities. If an administrator refuses to protect the public, he should face a challenge to his
tax exemption by local patients comparing his hospital with its competitors. His hospital's Board may replace him.
Loss of public funding through loss of tax-exemption applies to any tax-exempt organization.
Most hospitals accept public money: They are de facto public utilities. If an administrator refuses to protect the public,
he should face a challenge to his tax exemption by local patients comparing his hospital with its competitors. His hospital's
Board may replace him. Loss of public funding through loss of tax-exemption applies to any tax-exempt organization. In corporate
hospitals, the errant administrator changes hospitals or changes corporations. Click here.
| Due process. |
|
| Click here. |
| Dismissal, no hearing. |
|
| June McKoy, MD, JD, MPH |
| But Congress contradicted |
|
| the Constitution. |
Interns and residents are paid by Medicare via hospitals, nominally at ~$20/hour for working no more than 80 hours/week, although
the doctor does NOT receive $20/hour ($80,000/year). Does anyone know of federal or state law permitting these doctors, de
facto federal employees, to be fired without an impartial hearing? What do "professional ethics" and "professionalism" say
about what allegedly happened in this case? Click for details as to where your tax-money goes.
Read both sides of this Johns Hopkins case: Was Dr. Oscar K. Serrano
fired near the end of his second year of residency (second year after internship) without due process in a heavily
federally-funded medical school in the "Land of the Free"? If he was not fired for speaking to the visiting
Review Committee, why was he fired without a hearing? Since Medicare funds residencies, doesn't he have rights
as a de facto federal employee? If he was fired for speaking to the Review Committee, does the firing not violate his,
and our, rights as citizens: Why should our taxes support such firings? Who is responsible for the firing:
A person named Mr. Corporation, a doctor named Dr. Corporation since corporations are people in the Land of the Free, or a
real person?
| Do contracts |
|
| protect interns |
| and residents |
|
| @ Johns Hopkins? |
| University funding: |
|
| Court-Immunity? |
| Federal employee |
|
| fired without required hearing? |
| Dr. Lipsett |
|
| Dr. Freischlag |
|
| Dr. Steven Leach |
|
| Dr. Topalian |
|
Should Medicare-supported, non-profit hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission, itself a non-profit, risk loss of their
tax-exemptions if they attack doctors trying to protect patients? What about the Joint Commission itself and physicians' professional
societies if they, too, fail to protect doctors who protect patients? All such non-profit, tax-supported entities are de facto
public utilities; their administrators should be licensed and bonded to avoid "Enron ethics." See the cases listed on this
web site. U.S. medicine has been unsafe for doctors since passage of HCQIA in 1986, which made U.S. medicine dangerous for
doctors by withholding Constitutional due process. There is a (probably-unrelated) shortage of U.S. doctors estimated to reach
200,000 by 2020; we import ~25% of our new doctors. Immigrating doctors are probably unaware of these considerations, as are
most U.S. premedical students. Please click here. Heretofore universities have offerred MD/PhD Programs such as the Harvard/MIT
program. These circumstances (Vide infra) suggest that JD/MD in that order would also be appropriate, pending a Congressional
amendment to HCQIA.
| HCQIA killed due-process |
|
|
| for doctors. Click me. |
The Doctor-Shortage: ~200,000 by 2020.
Our USA faces a doctor-shortage estimated to be 200,000 (out of ~788, 000)
by 2020. We need doctors from elsewhere; already they constitute ~25% of our new doctors: A question naturally arises whether doctors who immigrate will be offered Constitutional
protections which a law, HCQIA of 1986, denies to U.S. doctors: Congress deliberately omitted due process from its peer-review law (See "Should Due Process Be Part of Hospital
Peer Review?") and will not amend it even though patients have died (SHALLER, COLANTONIO, MOORE):
Doctors are declared disruptive when they become whistle-blowers for safety in hospitals. Congressmen also want to protect patients. The United States Supreme Court ("Equal Justice Under
Law") refused to hear SHALLER and POLINER ("Some animals are more equal than others.")(See
~240 Cases). The Georgia court dismissed KURITZKY. A Presidential Order would help restore
Constitutional rights to U.S. doctors to protect them from reprisal when they dare speak up for patient-safety in
hospitals:
"Due process peer-review is required
for
Medicare reimbursement."
"A professional review body's failure to meet the conditions described in this subsection shall not, in itself, constitute
failure to meet the standards of this act."Click here for J. Hafter J.D.'s case challenging HCQIA's constitutionality.
| Dr. Waite at 2005-Washington meeting. |
|
|
| Click here for his successful California lawsuit, an outcome rendered unlikely by HCQIA. |
"Six of my cases were brought up for review by a tissue committee controlled by competitors. A nurse (sic), employed
by the Saint Francis Hospital, testified that I had the highest rate of complication. Why such testimony was admitted is a
matter of some interest, in itself. Liability for bearing false witness is an important related matter, in itself, and
falls under the topic of immunity. Under our gracious new laws, I would not be able to win $500, 000 today were
a nurse again caught committing libel." Verner S. Waite M.D., Fellow, American College
of Surgeons
Corporate conttributions control Congress: Congress omitted due process for
doctors in the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986. Doctors now have less protection under the law than
other citizens. Doctors speaking up for safety can be declared disruptive and lose their career. "Enron ethics"
is the state of ethics in hospitals controlled by businessmen in America: "There is no federal statute that requires
peer review committees to observe due process, which the Supreme Court has defined as (1) giving written
notice of the actions contemplated, (2) convening a hearing, (3) allowing both sides to
present evidence at the hearing, and (4) having an independent adjudicator." S.
Segall J.D. & W. Pearl M.D.
"The failure to change and improve
the current system will continue to result in the loss of qualified and skilled physicians from their profession due to others
who maliciously pervert the current peer review process for their own selfish motives." Hall
See the link to Jacob Hafter J.D. under Lawyers for a case which may test
the constitutionality of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986. Semmelweis Society was
incorporated to address this issue. AAPS, UAPD, and others have recognized the importance of keeping competition out
of peer-review:
"How Did Doctors Become Serfs?" by Jack Anderson. Click here.
Would you take your patients into hospitals
in which you faced being declared "disruptive" for protecting patients? If you were a college student, would you choose
to become a doctor in the USA under such a law? If you were a foreign doctor thinking of emigrating, would you be aware
of such a law?
Read the cases on this web site. Decide for yourself. More such cases are buried in the
National Practitioner Data Bank as doctors are declared "disruptive." Their careers are lost.
We
are all patients: The only way to protect ourselves as patients is to have independent peer review, that is, with due process
with adjudication acceptable to all. Congress is unlikely to legislate respect for due process, because Congress
is controlled by corporations, but local citizens can compare local hospitals and force the local Hospital Board to protect
doctors who protect patients.
| Nevada: Senator Reid, |
|
| please amend HCQIA of 1986. |
| N.Y.: Senator Schumer, |
|
| Help Dr. Colantonio. Escrow payment to an administrator destroying doctors supporting safety. |
| S.C.: Senator Graham, |
|
| Please investigate 4 hospital murders. Click pictures. |
| Virginia: Senator Webb, |
|
| Please investigate Dr. Raviotta's case of whistleblower-reprisal. |
h
Read 57 cases reported by Mr. Steven Twedt in 2003.
kk
Diagnosis: Medicare supports peer-review for profit. Doctors lose their career for
proprietary reasons unrelated to medical care: "There is no federal statute that requires peer review
committees to observe due process, which the Supreme Court has defined as giving written notice of the actions contemplated,
convening a hearing, allowing both sides to present evidence at the hearing, and having an independent adjudicator." Scott Segall J.D., William Pearl M.D.
Doctors have been gagged by some businessmen running hospitals, including
some Medicare hospitals. Medicare accounts for a large fraction of money received by hospitals. Congress neglects
Medicare-funding into predictable insolvency, but U.S. medicine is
already unsafe for U.S. doctors and patients because of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986, which permits
busninessmen running U.S. hospitals to destroy doctors.
The Morbidity & Mortality Conference is a discussion
of complications by peers; its purpose is educational, corrective, professional, nonpolitical, and nonpunitive. In
contrast, the Hospital 'Peer-Review' Committee crosses specialty lines and is a de facto competency-hearing, a trial lacking
the procedural standards of due process, hence an unfair trial subject to abuse. In Dr. Waite's case, rival surgeons
persuaded a nurse paid by the hospital to lie under oath. Whereas Dr.
Waite was able to win his case and $559,000 in 1986, today HCQIA makes such career-defense impossible: In Dr. Colantonio's case, the administrator is trying to fire Dr. Colantonio for trying to protect patients.
A patients has died; a lawsuit is underway. Click on the picture above for details. This case is one among
similar cases: One has to ask
whether Mercy´ Hospital in New York accepts Medicare money, because if it does, then the next question is whether
we want our Medicare taxes spent to hire Medicare-hospital lawyers to destroy Medicare-doctors trying to protect us,
the Medicare-patients. These considerations apply irrespective of how Congress and President Obama decide to fund U.S.
medicine: U.S. medicine is unsafe for patients in part because it is unsafe for doctors as citizens: HCQIA
denies them due process of law.
Treatment: Take Politcs Out of Peer-Review: Stop spending Medicare
taxes on administrators who destroy doctors protecting patients before profits. As a Condition of Payment, Medicare should require competency hearings be conducted at
public expense, including attorneys' fees, outside the hospital in question by adjudicators acceptable to all parties:
Due Process. Remember, doctors trained in the "Land of the Free" do not have to practice
here. Other countries seem not to have biased peer-review the way we do: U.S. doctors can 'go international'
with their care, just as doctors from abroad will choose to come here before learning the costs of practicing medicine without
due process. Congress passed the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 without including due process in peer review.
Congressional control by hospital corporations is not going away, but the president has the power to require Medicare to pay
only trecipients who respect due process. Peer-review reform is a matter of respect for Constitutional
law: If we fail to respect due
process, what is there to defend in the "Land of the Free?"
"Six
of my cases were brought up for review by a tissue committee controlled by competitors. A nurse (sic), employed by the Saint
Francis Hospital, testified that I had the highest rate of complication. Why such testimony was admitted is a matter of some
interest, in itself. Liability for bearing false witness is an important related matter, in itself, and falls under
the topic of immunity. Under our gracious new laws, I would not be able to win $500, 000 today were a nurse again
caught committing libel." Verner S. Waite M.D., Fellow, American
College of Surgeons
College students, take note.
Pending reform in our 'Land of the Free' by a Congress controlled by corporations, you may want to become
a doctor in another English-speaking country where there is also a shortage of doctors. The 'immunity'
to which Dr. Waite refers in the paragraph above is our current legal immunity to lie under oath: Libel-immunity.
It is not part of our Constitution, nor worth continuing as part of our national heritage. Henry A.
Waxman J.D. has known of this problem for at least 18 years (i.e. the case of Dr. David A. Shaller). Mr. Waxman is not
about to retire.
| Reasons not to become |
|
|
| a U.S. doctor. Click here. |
| How Did Doctors Become Serfs? |
|
| Click here. |
| Trust the finest Congress |
|
|
| money can buy? |
Hospital boards accept federal funds and disregard
due process in peer review: Should taxpayers grant them an exemption? Why become a doctor when
the risk of losing lifetime earnings is great? Medicare could correct this injustice: "As
a condition of payment, due process is required in all institutions receiving public funds, beginning with
medical peer-review, hospital appointments, and access." Do other countries run hospitals with public money and waste
funds defaming doctors who are trying to treat patients, in some cases excluding doctors from publicly-supported hospitals?
| JD's practice |
|
| medicine. |
| HCQIA of |
|
| 1986. |
| Doctors hurt |
|
| doctors. Chu. |
| Cooperate |
|
| for defense. |
| Dr. Waite at ACS ~1983. |
|
|
| Click here. |
"Six of my cases were
brought up for review by a tissue committee controlled by competitors. A nurse
(sic), employed by the Saint Francis Hospital, testified that I had the highest rate of complication. Why such testimony was
admitted is a matter of some interest, in itself. Liability for bearing false witness is an important related matter,
in itself, and falls under the topic of immunity. Under our gracious new laws, I would not be able to win $500,
000 today were a nurse again caught committing libel." Verner S. Waite M.D., FACS
u
| Google Search: Physician- |
|
|
| Manpower |
p
p
| "Napoleonic |
|
| Law" |
| "A Fabricated |
|
| Peer Review" |
| Peer Review |
|
| Injustice |
| 1986 Award: |
|
| $559,000. |
lllllllllllll
Career-satisfaction
requires career-stability, but law denies doctors due process in peer-review: The Health Care Quality Improvement
Act of 1986 omits due process, thereby making U.S. Medicine unsafe for U.S. physicians! Expect smart
U.S. students to avoid the risks of U.S. Medicine. To correct peer-review injustice, persuade the best Congress "health-care" corporations (e.g. Main Line Health
of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) can buy to amend HCQIA; elect a local hospital-board that respects the rule of law:
"Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches
the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law;
it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
Louis
Brandeis, United States Supreme Court
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright © 2012 H.E.Butler III M.D., F.A.C.S.
|
|
|
|
