More Brilliance From Obama's Town Hall Meeting...

First there was the AARP endorsement that never was.

Then there was the likening of a government run health insurance program to the Post Office.

Now there's this from the American College of Surgeons:

The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what’s right for the patient.

We agree with the President that the best thing for patients with diabetes is to manage the disease proactively to avoid the bad consequences that can occur, including blindness, stroke, and amputation. But as is the case for a person who has been treated for cancer and still needs to have a tumor removed, or a person who is in a terrible car crash and needs access to a trauma surgeon, there are times when even a perfectly managed diabetic patient needs a surgeon. The President’s remarks are truly alarming and run the risk of damaging the all-important trust between surgeons and their patients.

We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally, but we would urge him to have his facts correct before making another inflammatory and incorrect statement about surgeons and surgical care.

Good job there, Milhaus.

Remember: According to Bill Maher, Barack "Call me George W." Obama is one of the smart ones.

 

Comments

[PeterUK]

Be fair to old George W, Did he ever traduce people like the Chicago Shyster?

[markg8]

I think this guy has it right:

I read through the transcript, and they are right that Obama attributed the cost of an amputation for a diabetic at $30,000 to $50,000. But he did not say (exactly) that the surgeon would receive $30,000 to $50,000 dollars for the procedure. (The hospital gets a big chunk).

Obama: "All I'm saying is let's take the example of something like diabetes, one of --- a disease that's skyrocketing, partly because of obesity, partly because it's not treated as effectively as it could be. Right now if we paid a family -- if a family care physician works with his or her patient to help them lose weight, modify diet, monitors whether they're taking their medications in a timely fashion, they might get reimbursed a pittance. But if that same diabetic ends up getting their foot amputated, that's $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 -- immediately the surgeon is reimbursed. Well, why not make sure that we're also reimbursing the care that prevents the amputation, right? That will save us money."

I think Obama misspoke, and obviously his remarks should be clarified (and the figures corrected, if need be). However, if you look at the context, and you look at the "facts" (interesting how the surgeons association picked the higher figure), the overall cost does turn out to be in the range that Obama indicated, which is about $38,000, according to the Amputee Coalition of America.

Surgeons cut. That's their job. They are paid extremely well for that. They will recommend cutting as they see fit. They aren't interested in prevention. That's someone else's job. It makes no sense to pay $38,000 for any service if preventative care can accomplish the same thing, more cheaply.

More ammunition for the crazies. If anyone misspoke, it's the surgeon's association.

My mother was admitted to our local heart surgery mill (where they have a Ronald McDonald playground in the hall right outside the emergency room) for a bladder infection. Within 9 days and still sick, they scared her into having a triple heart bypass she was in no condition to have or recover from. 17 specialists all got a cut. It cost Medicare and BCBS over half a million dollars and 6 months later my mother died in a nursing home. Never went home again. Yeah these surgeons never make a bad call, they never weigh the money. My ass.

[Dennis the Peasant]

You know, if the American College of Surgeons had had $150 million laying around, none of this would have happened.

[PeterUK]

The American College of Surgeons probably do have a spare $150 mil hanging about,but they weren't prepared to give Obama a cut.

[Joel]

1. Obama did not say the surgeon gets all that money.
2. That is what Medicare pays the surgeon. That's not what the surgeon would charge if the person had no insurance.

3. Although less than $40,000 The following resources have it at much greater than $1,000.

From The Amputee Coalition Fact Sheet

The increasing rate of diabetes diagnoses in the United States is cause for alarm. Related healthcare costs are staggering, as data shows the total annual cost of diabetes treatment in 2002 (including direct and indirect costs) was estimated at $132 billion, or one out of every 10 healthcare dollars spent in the United States. 1 Other studies have suggested that diabetes-related amputations cost approximately three billion dollars per year ($38,077 per amputation procedure). 2 With the rise of diabetes diagnoses, there is also an expected rise in the number of amputees.

From the Healthcare Blue Book
Physician Services
Service: Leg Amputation - Surgical removal of the leg. Fee: $1,056 Fee Details: Physician fee for procedure and routine postoperative care. Pricing Agreement: Printable Detailed Pricing Agreement
Facility Services
Service: Leg Amputation - Surgery admission for Leg Amputation Fee: $18,057 Fee Details: Price is for a 15 day admission. More days charged at $1800 per day. Fewer days will reduce price by $1800 per day. Pricing Agreement: Printable Detailed Pricing Agreement
Anesthesia Services
Service: Leg Amputation - Surgical removal of the leg. Anesthesia Fee: $647 Fee Details: Price is for an average surgery time of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Prices may go up or down based upon the actual surgical time required. Pricing Agreement: Printable Detailed Pricing Agreement
Total Fee: $19,760

[elliottg]

Dennis, you're hackitude is starting to turn into outright lying.

[just passin by]

Dennis, teach me the trick where posting a link to an accredited institution of medicine is lying.

This is a different trick, I suppose, then screeching "health care crisis", or "global warming crisis", until enough retards vote you into into an office from which you can collect $150 million bribes.

[Dennis the Peasant]

just passin by-

Evidently I'm a surgeon in my spare time.

Who knew?