HHS Puts Doctor Snoop Plan on the Back-Burner
**Written by Doug Powers
On Monday we talked about the HHS plan to employ “mystery shoppers” to pose as patients looking for primary care doctors to help determine which doctors turn away patients with government health plans that pay lower reimbursement rates. Somehow this was supposed to help solve a doctor shortage, because in DC, every day is “opposite day.”
The plan has been put into hibernation. Why? Pretty much because too many people were paying attention:
The Obama administration will not move forward on a controversial proposal to have “secret shoppers” pose as patients to investigate how difficult it is for patients to receive primary care.
“On April 28th, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services submitted a notice to the Federal Register regarding a proposed study that would examine access to primary care,” an HHS spokesman said in a statement. “After reviewing feedback received during the public comment period, we have determined that now is not the time to move forward with this research project. Instead, we will pursue other initiatives that build on our efforts to increase access to health care providers nationwide.”
It’ll be back before long.
And the water keeps searching for the cracks…
(h/t Hot Air)
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBeremember being
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Another moronic idea on hold till we’re not looking.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
This holds true for being aware of Progressives as well as external threats.
They can claim all they want about this program being so pure, but it sure smelled to me as if someone would be putting a boot on the neck of some doctor if he wasn’t acting according to how they wanted them to.
Gee, where are the quotes from the AMA on this?
“…and this time keep it quiet dammit!”
If there are those within this administration willing to go this far, what aren’t they capable of?
Oh, that’s easy….they aren’t capable of running anything successfully. They’ve had how many years now to fix the postal service, social security, medicare and medicaid, and the borders?
The only things they’ve been successful at is fixing elections and hiding affairs.
Their big mistake was in letting people find out about the public comment period. Next time they’ll keep it a secret.
How unlike Obama to put the gov’t spying on business on hold. Oh wait. He was exposed. Then of course it’s on hold.
I’m curious if we will ever see reports of patients being turned away anyway.
How many doctors may be rather leery now of accepting new patients, no matter what this bunch of incompetent thugs think.
This video was secretly shot filming Katherine Sebelius and her HHS staff at a Monday morning staff meeting at their Washington DC headquarters.
…and this video would be what the patriotic Democrats would do if they were honest about the marxist in the WH.
It’s starting to look a little like Hitler’s Germany…the government spying on doctors? These are sad times we live in.
In other words, next time they’ll just ’til nobody is watching.
It will come back. On a friday afternoon at 4:00 before a three day weekend.
You mean like stress positions and waterboarding?
The brown shirts must have been back ordered.
They’ll be back when no one is looking.
I say give yourselves a HAND people!
Conservative bloggers got the word out and left Jay Carney looking like a total doofus w/ zero explanation as to how this was even seriously considered in the first place!
Yes, we need to remain ever vigilant between now and Nov. 2012. However, we can’t hold our breath that long. Save a little for the occasional victory lap fer’ chrissakes people.
Marshall_Will said:Yes, we need to remain ever vigilant between now and Nov. 2012.
You really think the election in 2012 is going to change anything? Did the election last November change anything? I had high hopes not now Boner has done NOTHING. He has not even tried to repeal the moronic light bulb law. He would be a hero to do that. What happened to all the noise that the House will just cut the funding for Deathcare? No he and his kind are just as corrupt and bought off as the rest of them. It is to late the Marxists have seized control and every time we have a victory like this they shove through 10 or 20 things we don’t know about to enslave us.
Sibelius: Aargh! We’d have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids and their darn dog!
Harley,
2010 did change some things and not all things. 2012 should get rid of bho. 2016 is when the last 1/3 of senators are up for reelection. We have to drive the message strong and hard that the era of career politician is over. Some will be voted out, some resign and others will die of old age. One way or another, we have to impress upon them that if they violate the Constitution, they will be removed. It took the founding fathers a while to get the country established. Take one election at a time, accomplish what can be accomplished and make a strategy for the next one.
Our morons-in-government, hard at work.
It’s interesting to ponder how many of the same doctors protesting this act by the Obama Administration also had no qualms to pester patients over their firearm ownership on medical questionaires back in the ’90s…
Maybe it would be a good idea for doctors’ office personnel who receive calls to compare notes with others. Start a list of ‘patients’ with the same name who are calling about whether the doctor is accepting new patients. Perhaps alert other offices, too.
They were going to change the name to Secret Shoppers but nicknaming them the “SS” wasn’t polling well.
They should hire more doctors not mystery shoppers.