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we have the type of friendship that if you really need me, I’m not going to be there for you.”


Stephen L. Brotherton, MD Fort Worth


TMA President–Elect


References 1. Wang Z, Chen F, Ward M, Bhattacharyya T. Compliance with Surgical Care Improvement Project measures and hospital-associated in- fections following hip arthroplasty. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2012;94:1359–1366.


2. Catalona WJ, D’Amico AV, Fitzgibbons WF. What the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force missed in its prostate cancer screen- ing recommendation. Ann Intern Med. 2012;157(2):137–138.


Government’s ulterior motive?


Recent news items, apparently in sup- port of the Justice Department’s effort to reduce or eliminate fraud and abuse by physicians and hospitals and clinics, have caused me concern.


Physicians and institutions under- stand that the most complicated and expensive patients are those covered by Medicaid and Medicare, and we have grown gradually to expect remunera- tion often less than the cost of care. We are painted with a broad brush as us- ing illegal tactics and methods to over- charge for services and for services not performed. Is the government in a less than subtle way trying to get our biggest group of supporters, our patients, to dis- trust us? This observer thinks so. We need to remind ourselves to be


circumspect in our day-to-day patient care and billing. Electronic charting and billing add to the time we spend caring for patients with little benefit to us, but also a lot of risk that reviewing entities can more easily access our data. Don’t forget what happens when the camel gets its nose under the edge of the tent.


Peter Wiles, MD Lindale


8 TEXAS MEDICINE December 2012


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