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EducateWorthington.org

The 912 Project - Glenn Beck

912 Group of Central Ohio

Please let me know if you'd like your link added

This is interesting from the aspect of the bs you tolerate from your doctor's office.

What about that late night trip you make to the ER when you can't an appointment at because they're booked 14 days out?

Let me guess you'll get too fast of quality treatment instead of waiting 3 hours out of your day at the ER while you watch the staff have their personal conversation while turning their work station into a eatting area?

Are they really going to try the old "conflict of interest" when these pharm. companies give doctors free trips for the amount of certain meds they prescribe?

Instead of me going on & on what's your past experience in the doctor's office been like that would change drastically when it comes to a fully qualified individual giving you the same basic treatment that the AMA is terrified of?




AMA Calls For Investigation Of Retail Health Clinics

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice News
Article Date: 26 Jun 2007 - 10:00 PDT

The American Medical Association (AMA) wants retail health clinics to be investigated for possible conflict of interest.

Retail health clinics, also called store-based health clinics, are walk-in health centres inside large supermarkets, pharmacies and stores such as Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreen and Rite Aid. You can see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant who can carry out basic procedures such as give injections and write prescriptions for minor illnesses. And they charge less than a doctor's practice.

The retail health clinic staff are supervised by a physician who does not have to be on site.

The potential conflict of interest arises because the clinic is not wholly independent of the store which sells the drugs the prescriptions are made out for.

Retail clinics, of which there were more than 200 in the US in 2006 and there are plans to build another 1,000 by the end of this year, are joint ventures between the retail store and a pharmacy chain.

The AMA said that its call for an investigation was prompted by stores saying that retail clinics boost sales of prescription drugs and other products not related to health and "help drive additional store traffic".

AMA Board member Dr Peter Carmel said that:

"There are clear incentives for retailers to participate in the implementation and operation of store-based health clinics."

"The nation's physicians want the AMA to ensure these incentives do not compromise the basic obligation of store-based health clinics to provide patients with quality care," he added.

Delegates at the AMA Annual meeting voted for the AMA to ask federal and state agencies to investigate joint ventures between retailers and pharmacy chains, and look especially at conflicts of interest that affect the welfare and health risks of patients as well as professional liability.

The AMA says retail clinics undermine and disrupt the relationship between patients and their doctors, and make it much harder to decide who is responsible when things go wrong.

The AMA also wants to press ahead with developing guidelines for legislation to control the operation of retail clinics, together with state and other medical societies, and it opposes waiving of state or federal regulations for retail clinics that do not follow existing standards of medical practice.

Dr Carmel also mentioned that health insurers are allowing retail clinics to waive or lower patient co-payments while forcing doctors to collect the fees. This financial incentive might influence patients to seek treatment at retail clinics on the basis of cost rather than quality of care, (while presumably denying doctors the chance to offer the same inducement should they wish to do so).

The AMA delegates approved an additional principle to get health insurers to treat them on a par with retail clinics regarding co-payment rules.

"The AMA believes health insurers should be prohibited from waiving or lowering co-payments only for patients that receive services at store-based health clinics," said Dr Carmel.

Other national medical societies are also keen to ensure that AMA standards are followed by store-based health clinics, said the AMA in a prepared statement.

Some newspaper reports have asked whether the medical profession is perhaps more concerned that the greater accessibility of retail clinics, the low hassle factor of not needing an appointment, could eventually become so attractive that doctors will lose business.

An editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times earlier this week put it like this: "any parent who has endured the difficulty of getting an appointment with the pediatrician for a screaming child's earache ... will see the local retail clinic as an attractive alternative."

The issues are complex. On the one hand there is the need to ensure high level of care and this includes continuity and good management, which is hard to do if patients are going to drop into the nearest convenient walk in clinic for treatment. Who is then responsible for making sure the prescription in place A does not conflict with the treatment prescribed in place B? The patient? The overseeing doctor, who it would seem is more tightly constrained by professional standards and health insurance payment rules than the retail clinic?

And on the other hand is the right of patients to have access to health care at the time they want it and a cost they can afford. If it is technically and ethically possible to do this then it should be done.

A spokesman for one of the stores that operates a retail clinic said patients want more accessible and affordable healthcare, and retail clinics meet that need, while keeping the patient's doctor informed.

AMA Calls For Investigation Of Retail Health Clinics

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice News
Article Date: 26 Jun 2007 - 10:00 PDT

The American Medical Association (AMA) wants retail health clinics to be investigated for possible conflict of interest.

Retail health clinics, also called store-based health clinics, are walk-in health centres inside large supermarkets, pharmacies and stores such as Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreen and Rite Aid. You can see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant who can carry out basic procedures such as give injections and write prescriptions for minor illnesses. And they charge less than a doctor's practice.

Screw the AMA, there is a conflict of interest of trying to stamp out the low cost provider. This is such a weak arguement. Wal-mart lowers healthcare costs, and that is why the AMA is against them.
 

AMA Wants Probe of Pharmacy-Based Health Clinics

Tuesday, June 26 (HealthDay News)  

The American Medical Association is calling upon federal and state agencies to investigate possible conflicts of interest posed by store-based health clinics operated by pharmacy chains.

The AMA said the request, made Monday at its annual meeting in Chicago, was spurred by reports that retailers say the store-based clinics help increase store traffic, which can increase sales of prescription drugs and non-health related items.

"It seemed to many [AMA] members that there was an inherent conflict of interest in a relationship between a health clinic and a pharmacy chain in terms of writing prescriptions and getting them filled in that pharmacy," said Dr. Peter Carmel, a member of the AMA board of trustees, and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at New Jersey Medical School.

Carmel said that, before the vote, there were "allusions to reports" of potential conflicts, in which clinic operators earn more money or get promotions based on the amount of prescriptions written.

Specifically, the AMA voted to:

.Ask state and federal agencies to investigate the clinics and pharmacies for potential conflicts of interest as they relate to patient welfare and risk, and professional liability concerns.

.Work with state and specialty medical societies in developing guidelines for legislation that regulates store-based health clinics.

.Oppose any state and/or federal regulations for store-based health clinics that waive existing standards for medical care facilities.

A spokesman for Walgreens, the large drugstore chain that operates Take Care Health clinics staffed by nurse practitioners in some of its stores, defended the company's record and denied any conflict of interest.

"If the AMA pushes this agenda, its members may find out that legislators and their constituents have been demanding accessible, affordable and high-quality health care for years," Michael Polzin said. "And that's exactly what retail clinics are delivering.

complete story