Posted on 05/03/2010 6:01:52 PM PDT by angcat
A Hazleton doctor is resigning from the medical staff of St. Luke's Miners' Memorial Hospital, Coaldale.
Dr. Frank C. Polidora, a longtime Hazleton orthopedic surgeon, blames the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March for his decision. He has been on the hospital's staff since 2003.
"The Democrats' 'passage' of OBAMACARE on March 21, 2010, was the final straw," Polidora wrote in his resignation letter to William Crossin, chief executive officer of St. Luke's-Miners. The resignation is effective Saturday.
Contacted Thursday, Polidora said his decision to leave had nothing to do with the hospital, a facility he praised. Rather, it was about following his own principles.
Polidora, who'll continue seeing patients at the private practice he's had in Hazleton since 1980, called the health care reform bill political, and unfair to patients and doctors.
"To be a true physician, one must be moral. To be moral requires freedom, both political and economic. The freedom of the physician has been lost by degrees over the last 45 years," he wrote in his letter. "OBAMACARE has totally destroyed this freedom, especially as it applies to a hospital practice."
Andrea Visnosky, director of marketing and public relations at St. Luke's-Miners, said the hospital's "basic feeling is that Dr. Polidora is entitled to take whatever personal action he feels is necessary in response to the health care reform. (The hospital) respects his decision to do this.
"I think health care organizations all over are still trying to study the bill and understand the complexities of it," she added.
While Polidora blamed Medicare for already stripping many freedoms from physicians, he said the new legislation means doctors and patients will be further controlled by politicians and insurance companies.
The new health care act will require a "bundling" payment system, meaning a single reimbursement will be made for all hospital and doctor care procedures - rather than separate payments to facilities and physicians, he explained. The reimbursement would be split between the facility, the physician, any internist brought on board for surgeries, medicines and equipment - and Polidora doesn't believe it would be handled fairly.
The law also sets procedures to follow for patients with certain conditions, even though Polidora said each case is different and should be decided independently.
"This has taken away my autonomy as a physician and I think it's very dangerous," he said. "They say it's being written by doctors, medical societies - but I wonder how much politics is involved."
Furthermore, hospitals are required to keep electronic medical records, he said.
"It's very easy for these people to dip into those records and see what treatment you're getting - and tell you to get something else," he said. While private practices don't have to file records electronically, being independent from a hospital means Polidora will no longer be able to perform surgeries.
"I fear for the future of the hospital as those in power in our country are seeking to replace the practice of medicine, the profession of healing, with an industry that produces health, but who will, intentionally or not, create a process that removes the unhealthy," Polidora said in his resignation letter.
In 2003, Polidora had his privileges revoked at Hazleton-St. Joseph Medical Center and Hazleton General Hospital following a dispute about a Greater Hazleton Health Alliance policy he believed compromised the privacy of his patients. One issue leading to the dispute was Polidora's belief that each patient should be allowed to recover at his or her own pace - and not within a time specified by outside agencies, like Medicare, that never see the patient.
jwhalen@standardspeaker.com
Leaving before the stampede...
I thought obamacare didn’t take effect until 2014, or some such date.
Obamacare was designed to destroy freedoms. Pretty much everything Obama touches is.
He better enjoy the private practice while he can. That's one of the main targets in socialized healthcare, like up in Canada, where they are actually illegal.
And so it begins...
Ah, Obama, the cold wet blanket of communism personified.
In short order “We the People” will shove it up Obamas exit ramp.
...i.e., death panels.
It is a matter of principle. That is why the good Doctor does not wait.
ObamaCare is a national disaster of the first order.
While private practices don't have to file records electronically, being independent from a hospital means Polidora will no longer be able to perform surgeries.
Well, why the hell not? I'll be at my barber tomorrow... and I'll take a look at the sign on the wall and see how much he charges for setting a broken bone, pulling a tooth, and stitching up a bullet wound. I tell ya, that's the sort of healthcare reform we needed... transparent, competitive, cost-effective, and consumer driven... everything this monstrosity of a "healthcare bill" is NOT!
Thanks angcat.
welcome ;0)
My GP quit as of the last day of last month, for the same reason
Who is John Galt?
He better make sure his tax records are up to date for coming spate of audits.
As a former resident, dont get sick in Vancouver/BC. You might as well put a gun to your head. The poorest wards in the Philippines makes the hospitals there look 3rd world and I;m not making this up...
This doctor gets it.
To be a human being, one must be moral as well. Of course that is the aim of so much of socialism: to turn us into animals that are just part of the herd.
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