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Good morning! It’s Day 3 of the Orthopaedic Advocacy Week. Please check your email as we want to hear from you! Let us know what is important to you, what trends you are seeing, and potential solutions. If you are an AAOS member & didn’t receive the email, please let me know!

Consolidation has been a massive plague on healthcare and is responsible for the unending increases in costs. Obamacare has many great components, but the pieces that encourage consolidation need to be repealed. It’s time… in fact there may be little time left. Let’s take action

The failure to reform Medicare payments and policies that encourage consolidation have led to rapid increases in physician employment. Doctors aren’t dropping out of Medicare (yet), they are just shifting the risk and cost to even more expensive venues (by becoming employed by

New policy from UHC just hit. Within days of announcing a Gold Card program to reduce prior authorization, they just increased prior authorizations to multidisciplinary practices (read physician offices) who have physical therapy. This will apply to all Medicare Advantage

Dr. DiGiorgio spot on here (as always!). There are many different types of physician practices. Each has advantages and disadvantages, but the government and regulatory agencies putting their thumb on the scale and pushing towards consolidation is bad for all Americans

A fitting tribute to an incredible Member of Congress. He has served graciously and honorably. The halls will not be the same without his well-worn shoes walking through them. Thank you from one physician to another for your dedication to our profession and patients!

People who oppose Physician Owned Hospitals: 1) Hospitals that don’t want competition People who support Physician Owned Hospitals: 1) Essentially everyone else This shouldn’t be so hard. Felons can own a hospital. Insurers can own a hospital. Lawyers can own a

It’s been an honor serving the San Antonio community for the last 10 years. I am beyond humbled to have my own peers nominate and select me as a top doctor in the state every year since I started practice. No more than 5% of the physicians in Texas are selected for this honor.

The real answer is that physician pay has not kept up with inflation and the amounts paid to physicians do not reflect the actual value of the care. Insurers have been able to unilaterally reduce pay to physicians while exponentially increasing their revenues through vertically

CMS: We can’t figure out how to increase pay to physicians to keep up with inflation and pay less than what we paid in 1998 when we repealed SGR Also CMS: Insurers can illegally pocket billions from taxpayers through Medicare Advantage upcoding if they want Make it make sense

The loss is personal. I spoke with doctors who initially welcomed the acquisition and watched with horror as the practices they built became widgets in a UnitedHealth machine. They regret their choice now, despite enjoying comfortable retirements. statnews.com/2024/08/28/uni…

STAT with another hard hitting run at UnitedHealth’s money grab in medicine. The continued administrative burdens with lack of increasing reimbursement has led to uncertainty in medicine and a desire to sell to corporations who put profits over patients statnews.com/2024/08/28/uni…

Ten years ago, UnitedHealth bought ProHealth Physicians, a major primary care group in CT. UnitedHealth promised it wouldn’t interfere with how the doctors take care of patients. Now, ProHealth is a shell of its former self, and the doctors regret selling. statnews.com/2024/08/28/uni…

PBM Leaders accused of making false statements under oath and asked to change their testimony regarding self-referral and preferential rates

UHC releases list of CPT codes for gold card. I don’t see any of the top 10 utilized procedures in Orthopedics. No total joint arthroplasty. No knee scope. No shoulder scope. No spine. Not a real gold card but a good PR project. Only win - most MSK imaging is listed

Great article in Texas Monthly on Orthopedic surgeon Tandy Freeman in Dallas. Thank you to ⁦Justin Boots⁩ for your support of musculoskeletal injuries and the rodeo industry ⁦Texas Medical Association⁩ ⁦TX Orthopaedic Assn⁩ ⁦AAOS⁩ ⁦⁦ texasmonthly.com/being-texan/ro…

We will keep beating the drum until those in power listen. This is a threat to the health of our country and the health of the economy. Small businesses are being pushed out. Consolidation is increasing costs. The economy will suffer. Time to get this fixed!

But why didn’t Fondren just open up another hospital down the street and compete like HCA did? Oh yeah because it’s been illegal for physicians to open new hospitals they own for 14 years now due to the lobbying efforts of large hospital systems. #nothealthcare

This is why Texas Medical Association and the Texas legislature fights hard for Texans to know who is in their network and ensure that patients get what they pay for with health insurance. Let’s make sure network listings are accurate!