Americans have been waking up recently to the realities of the Big Tech cartel and its growing power over our economy and civil liberties. Expectations for a formal Justice Department antitrust case against Google have been growing recently, and the CEOs of both Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple were questioned in a Congressional antitrust hearing in late July.
Strong government and public scrutiny could help restore faith in the First Amendment and equal opportunity. But it would be even better if the public’s newfound interest in trust-busting expands just enough to help save lives.
That’s because there’s another behemoth the feds should look to take down next: the powerful physician certification giant that chokes off healthcare supply and continues to unnecessarily increase healthcare costs.
Hey, if we’re worried about what big business titans are doing to online content, shouldn’t we be even more worried about what another giant is doing to mess with life and death?
The “non-profit” organization board certifying physicians and controlling this cartel is the American Board of Medical Specialties, (ABMS) which controls the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American Board of Emergency Medicine, (ABEM), along with 22 other medical specialties not including the more than 80 subspecialties they control as well. These entities have imposed a rigorous and all-too-frequent testing of doctors. While the normal recertification process is on an 8-10-year cycle, there are some requirements for physicians to pay annual "maintenance of certification” (MOC) fees each year. An MOC that has some experts placing their revenue at over one billion dollars – all for a “non-profit” entity.
Many hospital systems simply comply with a policy of only hiring ABMS-certified doctors and that means almost every doctor, even those in private practice who simply want to maintain certain privileges at major hospitals, need to fall in line as well. Being able to practice medicine at all in this country in any capacity is becoming something ABMS controls more than any other single entity, even the U.S. government, and it is important to note that their certification has nothing to do with the license to practice medicine.
Thus, what was once a series of courses and tests to determine a physician's excellence in practicing medicine suddenly became the process to assure a physician's adequacy to practice at all.
Of course, no one wants unqualified physicians treating anyone. But it’s important to note that the non-ABMS doctors who could be filling many vacancies across the country are simply certified by other physician certifying boards and board certification is not a requirement for licensure. In addition, the danger the cartel poses were highlighted during COVID-19 within cities like New York and Detroit. Their control limited patient access to care as non-ABMS physicians wishing to provide emergency and telemedicine services were turned away for not being an ABMS-board certified physician. This basically punishes patients and their access to care because a physician didn’t choose the right association to belong to and didn’t know the secret handshake!
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