Aren't these the guys Obama wanted on his side? photo from Politico.com
Obama invited all these doctors to the White House, dressed them in taxpayer funded lab coats, schmoozed them and courted them to get their much needed endorsement for his Health Care plan and now he’s stealthily stabbing them in the back.
Is this what they had in mind when they went to the Rose Garden? I have to wonder if they understood how the government under Obama can and will reach it’s tentacles into their lives and livelihoods.
According to government documents obtained from Obama administration officials, the mystery shoppers will call medical practices and ask if doctors are accepting new patients and, if so, how long the wait would be. The government is eager to know whether doctors give different answers to callers depending on whether they have public insurance, like Medicaid, or private insurance, like Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
But of course, none of this information will be used against any particular doctor:
In response to the drumbeat of criticism, a federal health official said doctors did not need to worry because the data would be kept confidential. “Reports will present aggregate data, and individuals will not be identified,” said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the plan before its final approval by the White House.
And these doctors are really supposed to believe this nonsense?
If this doesn’t reek of intimidation, nothing does. And I see nowhere in the story that the reporter called the AMA to get their opinion on this. I also have to wonder how the decisions were made regarding what states to target with these “mystery shopper” calls:
[…] administration officials said, a federal contractor will call the offices of 4,185 doctors — 465 in each of nine states: Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. The doctors will include pediatricians and obstetrician-gynecologists. [In addition to family practice physicans and internal medicine doctors.]
What I find most troubling about this is that these nearly 4200 doctors will be called at least twice to determine if the doctor has different standards of care for private insurance patients versus government insured patients. But 11% of these doctors will be called a third time and this time the caller will identify himself as a govenment employee and will ask whether the doctors accept private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare, and whether they take “self-pay patients.” The study will note any discrepancies between those answers and the ones given to mystery shoppers.
Tell me again that these results will not be used against a physician – tell me again that this information will be kept confidential. Tell me again how Obama wants the support of America’s doctors, most of whom do not belong to the AMA, by the way.
Diary of a Mad Conservative 
June 28th, 2011 at 11:36 AM
The continuing infiltration of the country by this regime is deplorable.
This man lives and breaths Marxism and he will continue to ‘fundamentally transform America’ as long as there is breath in his body.
The 95 year old woman that was told to remove her diaper is well beyond common sense.
That is a dictatorial regime, brown shirts, your papers, now !
America better wake up soon, or we will be relegated to the dustbins of history.
If this congress does not at least slow him down, everybody up for re-election in 2012 should be removed.
And that includes Michelle Bachmann.
Her duty now is to stop or slow the incursion of the Obama shell game.
You show some influence Michelle, we’ll see about POTUS.
June 27th, 2011 at 12:06 PM
don’t forget who these doctors are…the pocket protector nerds that had few friends growing up….and now this spinless group will be lead to slaughter as the lawyers sue them to extinction….only people that will suffer are those that are young without advocates because they can’t vote, sick people, elderly…and one day you
dr z (i speak often to docs about a slowdown or sick-in or down right boycott….i think docs should hook up with teamsters who have the guts to make their needs known to all)
June 27th, 2011 at 11:46 AM
Any doctor on board with Obamacare needs to make an appointment to have his head examined by one who is not.
June 27th, 2011 at 11:13 AM
There’s no doubt they’ll use this information against them. These doctors should have known better. I wouldn’t trust one member of Obama’s administration as far as I could throw him/her. It’s beyond me how people still cannot see what this man is doing to our country.
June 27th, 2011 at 8:35 AM
Who could possibly think that Obama would use this Alinsky style tactic to attack the medical profession? Answer, anyone with two brain cells working.
June 26th, 2011 at 8:01 PM
The AMA probably would be ok with this. Only about 12% of doctors belong to the AMA. The AMA is in bed with the O administration.
June 27th, 2011 at 6:26 AM
You are absolutely right but I’d like nothing more than for the AMA to be on record about this new issue. Do they go along with this kind of treatment by the Regime towards our nation’s doctors or don’t they? It puts them in an interesting PR position, doesn’t it?