A multitude of flaws in President Obama’s health- care law have been exposed, both prior to its enactment and since it passed on a straight party line vote. They range from tax hikes on small business owners and the middle class, to gutting $716 billion from Medicare, to its punitive individual mandate.
Little attention has been paid, however, to a component of the Affordable Care Act found in section 1311(h), which will prove catastrophic to the doctor-patient relationship. These few lines empower one bureaucrat—the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary—to determine whether a physician is providing “quality health care measures.” Based on that finding, the Secretary is empowered to cancel a physician’s health insurance provider policy, effectively forcing him out of practice.
Allowing the HHS Secretary, who is not governed by the Hippocratic Oath or a state medical board, to define “quality health care measures” will have a devastating impact on our health care system. Consider the recent controversy surrounding mammogram guidelines. In 2009, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force advised mammograms for women over 50, which contradicts the American Cancer Society’s typical guideline that screenings begin at 40, and therefore served to divide the medical community.
Under President Obama’s health care law, should the HHS Secretary determine that performing mammograms on women younger than 50 violates a standard of care, the provider must comply, regardless of his or her concerns. Failure to do so would allow the Secretary to shut down a medical practice. The powers given to the Secretary are so broad, he or she could literally dictate how all physicians nationwide practice medicine.
This violates the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, as physicians are trained to treat patients individually and not with a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Under this new regulation, patients’ standard of care may be diminished. This rule also threatens access, driving more doctors from their practices and creating an even greater shortage of medical providers. In turn, patients will face longer wait times in between appointments, and in some cases, it will be time they can’t afford to lose. Oftentimes, it is the sickest and poorest Americans’ access to care that is disproportionately threatened.
Much like the Medicare “cost-cutting” panel known as IPAB, section 1311(h) places another unelected bureaucrat in Americans’ health care decisions. The Secretary does not answer to a governing board and may be influenced by special interest groups or political and financial interests. The regulation also directly contradicts the President’s promise that “if you like your doctor, you can keep him.”
The Safeguarding Care of Patients Everywhere (SCOPE) Act repeals this regulation, protecting patients’ access to their medical providers and ensuring physicians may continue treating individuals as they deem necessary. The SCOPE Act continues to hold physicians accountable to their state licensing boards, insurance companies and professional groups, rather than one federal bureaucrat.
The SCOPE Act is not a partisan issue, but a patient issue. We must ensure that those in need of care receive it from a medical provider who is not handcuffed by the HHS Department. Simply put, providers must be free to diagnose and treat patients as they have been trained and according to their sacred oath. Standards of practice must not fall victim to different administrations, leaving patients and physicians in the crossfire. Passing the SCOPE Act safeguards medical standards from the whims of political parties and the grips of outside influence.
— Representative Phil Gingrey, M.D., is the U.S. congressman for Georgia’s eleventh district.