Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Is this a little incestuous?

The Society of General Internal Medicine has established a "National Commission on Physician Payment Reform" to:

Assess how and how much doctors get paid, as well as potential impacts of proposed healthcare payment models such as accountable care organizations, patient-centered medical homes and value-based purchasing.  The panel will identify solutions that help constrain costs and optimize care.

The Commission is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the California Healthcare Foundation, and the Sergei Zlinkoff Fund for Medical Education and Research.

Well, OK.  Can't hurt, I guess.  But there seems to be a requirement for membership, some kind of connection to Harvard, Boston, Stanford, or California.  Even the sole consumer representative is from Boston, working for an organization funded in great measure by Boston-based health care institutions and insurers.  Last I looked, there were a lot of great people born and bred and trained in other places.  Couldn't those foundations have pushed harder for a greater diversity in background?

1 comment:

e-Patient Dave said...

Heh - what a surprise. Not gonna let any of them Mayo or Cleveland or Intermountain hippies get in the way of the establishment! What do THEY know? :)