Doctors Pushing Back on Obamacare Consolidation

Marguerite Bowling / August 26, 2010

It’s not just the majority of American voters who are itching from the rash of regulations, taxes and government bureaucracy that has stemmed from Obamacare. Small physician groups aren’t ecstatic with the White House’s latest effort to cajole them into swallowing some bitter pills regarding their day-to-day operations.

This week, several Obama administration officials, including a former member of the National Economic Council, published an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine that urged doctors to “embrace rather than resist change” coming from the new health reform law, which passed in March. These changes include the likely demise of many small physician practices as part of “vertical organization” approaches that would promote more hospitals and large-group practices.

“Physicians who embrace these changes and opportunities are likely to deliver the greatest benefits to their patients, the health system, and themselves,” according to the article, which was written by Nancy-Ann DeParle, Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel and Dr. Robert Kocher. (more…)