Re: ACOG
From: Garry E. Siegel, M.D. (garrys@mindspring.com)
Wed May 30 19:28:43 2007
It has been a long day with more to do, and the ABOG pamphlet has just
hit the desk.
It would be nice had there been an "executive summary" at the beginning.
I am hoping that ACOG will have a simplified explanation somewhere, but
it sure looks like we must:
I. Keep our licenses and be nice
II. Do ABC every year, or at least for a while (unsure on this)
III. Take a computer based test every few years
IIII. Do some time of office QI
Oy vey.
Garry
At Wed, 30 May 2007, Lynn Montgomery wrote:
>
>I feel I must vent here a little and y'all are my sounding board. I
>have been a member in good standing of ACOG since my second year of
>residency. Over the course of the years, I have paid my dues, totally
>expecting that this is "my" organization and it would look out for my
>best interest as a practicing obstetrician in the trenches. I continued
>my membership despite practicing with a grand old partner who never
>belonged and was freely professed that he would never give money to an
>organization who would do nothing for him. I was proud when I passed my
>boards and could now be officially known as a fellow of the American
>College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
>
>All that said, I must have missed the memo regarding ACOG's initiative
>with ABOG regarding the re-vamping of the boards and recertification
>program. In the recent pamphlet I received from ABOG there is an
>extremely hard to follow description of the new recertification process.
>In that pamphlet, it clearly states that both ABOG and ACOG cooperated
>in designing this process. I, as a "fellow" certainly was not allowed
>to have a say in changing this process. If this is a collegial
>organization, why is the "membership" asked whether or not they desire a
>change in any certification process. Maybe these are mandates set forth
>by the collective medical boards, but could not our organization have
>communicated the proposed changes, requested input and then described
>what the changes will entail. I am certainly not alone in this in that
>several months ago, I inquired of this list if anybody was aware of the
>changes coming and got no response. Further, my young partner had no
>idea regarding the changes until recently.
>
>So, I currently spend my approximate $600/year for fellowship dues and
>my approximate $600/year for recertification so that Norman Gant can
>have a fancy building in Dallas for testing - when every other "board"
>entity is moving toward computer testing held in multi-use "testing
>centers" located across the country. Further, I attend obstetric
>medical management meetings and continually hear how OB/GYN is behind
>other specialties in coding initiatives (I am familiar with this acutely
>in MFM coding, while Neo has all of their codes). In addition, I
>repeatedly see reports regarding excessive charging on the part of
>medical liability insurance companies and the reporting groups are not
>ACOG, but rather other interest groups.
>
>Rather than deal with the issues that directly reflect on my day-to-day
>practice, ACOG spends its time coming up with "immediately available",
>mandating prenatal testing for ALL pregnant patients, mandating hep B
>vaccination for ALL pregnant patients, mandating CF testing for ALL
>obstetric patients. How about mandating some protections for me...
>
>I know it has been said here before, but I must say it again - "ACOG,
>WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?" Maybe we should start with some
>financial accountability - how much of our dues goes to the top and for
>what...
>
>Lynn
>
>--
>Lynn D. Montgomery, M.D.
>
>Obstetrics & Gynecology, Maternal-Fetal Medicine
>
>The Birth Center/Rocky Mountain Women's Health
>
>1211 S. Reserve St.
>
>Missoula, Montana, 59801
>
>406-549-0978
>
>fax 406-549-0987
>
>e-mail: apgar10@thebirthcentermt.com
>
--
Garry E. Siegel, M.D.
Private Practice
Roswell, GA
