Please write to your medical society(ies)to take a stand against CCHIT. CCHIT is not physician driven but shareholder driven. Somehow, AMA, AAFP and other organizations have bought into this organization's mission-- It is our medical society's endorsement of CCHIT that gives it legitimacy.
Send them a message, "I'm not taking this CCHIT any more!"
Don't just WRITE to your medical society, people JOIN IT. Contribute to the PAC. Go to the damn meeetings. PARTICIPATE!
Julia and I are delegates to the annual MSSNY House of Delegates meeting. We're active in the society. We call and write to politicians, and participate in lobbying efforts, because in the long run, our survival depends on it.
I have resigned my membership in the AAFP because they do not have a single clue what it is going to take for the practice of medicine - and most specifically FAMILY medicine - to survive. They've stopped fighting for the well-skilled generalist, and have embraced this outlook that lots of government, lots of mid-levels, and lots of computers are going to "save" primary care. Makes BLOOD shoot out of my eyes!
What's going to save our profession, quite frankly, is those of us who PROVIDE the medical care competing in the same political arena as those who want to squeeze us. Can't fight if you're NOT THERE.
It's also going to take EDUCATING the patients that not everyone in a white coat is the same! The pharmacist should NOT be prescribing for your child's "ear infection"! Your shopping-mall optometrist should NOT be writing you prescriptions for oral medications! You do NOT need a specialist for EVERY FREAKIN' ORGAN SYSTEM if you have mild hypertension and hyperlipidemia, uncomplicated diabetes, or any one of the many common problems we deal with 50 times a day. Health isn't something the government "gives" to you.. your body is YOUR responsibility. Take care of it. You pay for oil changes for your car, suck it up and pay for doctor visits for your body ! Free care is NOT a right! NOR IS IT FREE!
We have some of our patients on one side (bless their dear little hearts) thinking our services are a "right" that has no cost OR value, the politicians who are encouraging this mindset to keep themselves in power, and the insurance companies who's job it is to keep as much of the money as possible. We have to STOP behaving like we're above it all, and get freakin' active.
Me? When we get socialized medicine and $25 an office visit I can always go back to engineering. How about the rest of you?
Sorry for this missive on Christmas.
V.
