Michelle Obama And Patient-Dumping

Call me "batshit crazy", but I just don't care what Michelle Obama wears - or when the hypoallergenic puppy moves in.

I care that a healthcare administrator sleeps with the President, and that her notions of "collaborative care" and cooperative relationships might not serve the best interests of doctors (especially primary-care doctors) and patients . . . particularly low-income patients.

And/so, I found this bit of investigative journalism from the American Thinker (hat tip Stormy - from a thread at Joe's), very interesting.

Michelle Obama, in her $317,000 job as a "high-profile" hospital VP in Chicago, helped hatch a scheme that essentially dumped poor patients on community hospitals & clinics . . . so the big flashy hospital could maintain a healthy profit margin. Of course, the whole ugly business (which skirts on the illegal) was down-played during the campaign.

But (cue glassy-eyed stare), I hear Michelle's arms are so toned in her new People spread!

When you ponder on it all, the dumping scheme actually kind of mirrors what has happened in small-town Asheboro. For well over a decade, the emphasis has been on big new flashy buildings . . . even as Bob Morrison (2006 base salary & benefits: $361,168) & Steven Eblin (2006 base salary & benefits: $226,814) drove good doctors out of town.

Primary care . . . especially that of children . . . took a back seat. But hey, we can cure cancer in Asheboro!

And the slogan went from "Care you can trust" to "Technology you can trust".

Yeah, sure.

With the economy in a nose-dive, and more locals out-of-work, there are going to be more kids on the Medicaid rolls . . . more under & uninsured children . . . the kind of patients that kill the bottom line of private practices . . . private practices that did not hesitate to dump all kinds of badness on a willing and able Dr. Mary Johnson, but did not want her around to compete after the hospital tossed her out on the street for intervening to help a critically-ill newborn baby whose care someone else badly botched.

I was recruited home to be the safety net for those children. But I made the mistake of talking back to Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin. And for that, I had to be destroyed. There was no way Bob & Steve could allow me to stay in town in private practice and mess with the profit margin of their safety net.

As a former employee of the hospital related just this past week, "You don't cross Bob Morrison."

Now, a decade later, Bob's myopic brand of leadership has more kids in Asheboro "dumped" in line to see PA's at the Merce Clinic . .. . instead of seeing Pediatricians who came here and wanted to build something to be proud of . . . Pediatricians who would not settle for mediocrity and who did not want to leave - but were given no viable choice.

But with his 20-200 vision, Bob only saw prosperity ahead. He made no provision for bad times (except as it pertained to his own salary, benefits and parachute).

When I think about what could have been . . . when I think about the way I have been treated for daring to fight back . . . I seethe.

So I am going to continue to cross Bob Morrison. He is a lying, self-agrandizing, way over-rated POS in my book.

I am sick of over-paid healthcare administrators playing everyone (especially doctors) like pawns on some sick, warped chessboard. I am sicker of politicians and regulatory agencies and law enforcement letting them do it . . . on the premise that it's all in the economic best interests of the community.

Clinton, Hunt, Easley, Perdue, Obama . . . all you have to do is look at that case of Dr. Mary Johnson in Asheboro, North Carolina to see the Democrat's real "vision" for healthcare.

It is apparently Michelle's vision.

Update: And Obama's. His vision for community health centers is intriguing in the context of the program his wife developed in Chicago.

It's simply not going to work. The government does not police and or fairly regulate the programs it already has . . . programs plagued by poor oversight, bad management, apathy and corruption.

I wish the President would invite me to his damned summit (consisting of "lawmakers, lobbyists and industry") on Thursday (note that doctors are not worthy enough to be included on the list). He'd get an earful on the difference between what government programs promise and what they deliver.

And after I got my engraved invitation, Obama could direct his Attorney General's office to do something about what Randolph Hospital did to me.

Yeah, I'm dreaming. Hope has not ever been for me.

3/2 Author's Note: I've tweaked this one a few time, readers. My visit to Guidestar yesterday made me mad. And I wonder. Where are Randolph's IRS 990's for 2007 and 2008? What doesn't Bob & company want us to see?

Maybe the same thing Bob and Steve repeatedly lied under Oath to keep me from seeing during the lawsuits?

Not that these two non-profiteers' breach of ethics/violation of the law (perjury is a felony) matters to local law enforcement . . . or the oh-so-concerned-for-the-common-man's-welfare politicians in Raleigh.