Free2Care’s Rx for Reforming America’s Predatory Healthcare System was a collaboration of healthcare experts with four ACHT Felows among them.

WASHINGTON, D.C., DC, UNITED STATES, September 19, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- FREE2CARE is a coalition of physician and patient organizations and thought leaders who believe that Healthcare is about the physician/patient relationship and can be transformed through price transparency, access, and choice. The American Colege of Healthcare Trustees is a member organization of FREE2CARE. The American College of Healthcare Trustees is a national professional association promoting good governance and leadership in the healthcare. It helps healthcare trustees govern wisely. It is proud that four of our Fellows participated in this FREE2CARE position paper.... Physicians provide medical care. “Healthcare” is something else—what third-party payers may cover, what one may dispense to oneself, what one may obtain from any of several categories of “providers.” This paper amplifies the voice of physicians and others who have studied this country’s increasingly predatory system closely. Together, they advocate something radical and extreme—a patient-centered system. By radical and extreme, we mean:

● Urging Americans to become informed shoppers for and consumers of medical care and informed voters who will make it abundantly clear to their
lawmakers that the public understands what has gone wrong and what is needed to fix it.
● Making the hard decisions at the political level to expose the consolidated special interests that now control and siphon wealth out of a predatory
healthcare system. Control must go back to the patient and the physician.
● Supporting and enabling innovations that provide patients with affordable choices when they search for medical care. A sustainable system will not come from consolidating corporations on their way to monopoly status, nor from government policies that allow those gestating monopolies to prosper.
A sustainable system must grow out of the needs of patients served by trustworthy, autonomous physicians who are free to care for those patients.

Patients and a great many physicians must wake up, not only to understand how we got here, but also to energize A GREAT REFORMATION.

They are the primary stakeholders in a healthier marketplace for the delivery of medical care. Since April 2019, when a first paper accompanied a conference in Washington, D.C., the Free2Care coalition has expanded to include 34 like-minded groups, representing over 8 million citizens, including more than 70,000 physicians. Free2Care presents this second paper to those who shape public policy and to the public itself as an exposé on the inner workings of our predatory healthcare system. It is also a roadmap to a better system, rooted in the principle that our best hope for wider access to high-quality medical care at a sustainable cost is a COMPETITIVE MARKETPLACE. A marketplace that is as TRANSPARENT and fair as possible. A marketplace that disciplines the behavior of service providers who must compete and empowers consumers who can freely choose among them.

WE APPEAL TO ALL READERS OF THIS PAPER to bring their influence and persuasive power to bear on lawmakers whose ears, at long last, must turn away from the predators and listen to physicians who speak on behalf of patients.

Two American College of Healthcare Trustees Fellows are authors and prime movers of this position paper. Marion Mass, M.D., graduated from Duke University Medical School and trained in pediatrics at Northwestern University. She has practiced in suburban Philadelphia for about 20 years in outpatient and urgent care settings. She is the co-founder of PRACTICING PHYSICIANS OF AMERICA and serves on the board of the Bucks County Health improvement Partnership, and the editorial board of the Bucks County Courier Times and Doylestown Intelligencer. She is also a delegate to the Pennsylvania Medical Society. David Balat is the Director of the Right on Healthcare initiative with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He has a broad base of experience throughout the healthcare spectrum with special expertise in healthcare finance. He has also led the revitalization of complex facilities that were in financial distress. His expertise and success have made him a respected thought leader whose opinion is sought by legislators at the state and national levels. He has written numerous op-ed pieces and is active as a speaker and commentator.. He is a former congressional candidate in Texas (2nd District). Of the expert contributors, David Levien, M.D, M.B.A., F.A.C.S., is president, CEO, and board chairman of the American College of Healthcare Trustees. He has practiced clinical surgery for 34 years—20 of which were as chairman of surgery, and 12 as program director of a surgical residency.

He has served as a member of the multiple Boards of Directors and as President and Vice President of multiple learned societies. He has patented a medical device, published three surgical books and multiple papers, and achieved the faculty rank of Clinical Professor of Surgery, Jefferson Medical College, and Professor of Clinical Surgery, New York Medical College. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins, his M.D. from Georgetown (cum laude), and his MBA from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management. He has been board-certified in both general and colorectal surgery, and has held a certificate of special qualification is surgical critical care. He is also a certified physician executive. Marlene Wust-Smith, MD is CEO of Physician Outlook Magazine and is a Hispanic physician who graduated from Cornell University with her Bachelor of Science in 1985 and with her Medical Doctorate in 1989. She has been a practicing pediatrician for over 25 years and has had the honor of caring for children and their families across the socioeconomic spectrum, from the very poor in North Central rural Pennsylvania to the very rich of the Upper East Side of Manhattan and the East End of Long Island in the Hamptons. She has a passion for making sure that all patients are able to access the highest quality care. Currently, Dr. Wust-Smith is a university medical director. In addition to her practice of medicine, Dr. Wust-Smith has a passion for writing and healthcare reform. She is Founder and Publisher of Physician Outlook Magazine. Information about the other expert contributors can be obtained from the published document.

DAVID LEVIEN, MD,MBA,FACS
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF HEALTHCARE TRUSTEES
+1 844-322-4867 ext. 101
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Other

Medical Care is more than a commodity

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.