President’s Letter----March 8, 2008

Dear Colleagues and friends of SIMPD: 

David Walker, the nation’s Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office has resigned effective March 12, 2008.  He says he loves his job, but loves his country more and must therefore resign so he can freely tell us the truth about our nation’s impending financial collapse.  Since his appointment to a fifteen year term by then President Bill Clinton in 1998 Walker has been telling presidents and Congress that we are broke.  And he says not just broke but in danger of complete economic and national disintegration.  The cause he says is not national defense, Iraq or the cost of our military, but simply Medicare. 

For about two years he has been taking his message on the road at public meetings and TV interviews (See:   http://8vsb.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/david-walker-resigns-as-us-comptroller-general-post-no-021508-3/  ) because Congress and Presidents, though admitting he is correct, have not only done nothing to staunch the unsustainable financial Medicare hemorrhage, but have made it much worse by passing Medicare Part D which added nearly 40% to Medicare’s unfunded and unsustainable liabilities. 

So Walker resigned to accept a position as CEO of the newly formed Peter G. Peterson Foundation (See: http://www.petergpetersonfoundation.org/leadership.asp  ) which has given him a billion dollar budget to spread the truth about Medicare to the American public, unrestrained by his obligations as a public employee.  As Walker put it in his resignation letter on the GAO web site (See:  http://www.gao.gov/press/cgdeparture2152008.pdf  )  “As comptroller general of the United States there are real limitations on what I can do and say in connection with key public policy issues, especially issues that directly relate to GAO’s client - the Congress.”

Well, with what he’s said already I cannot wait to hear what he says next week!

Already he has said that the unfunded liabilities of entitlement programs are 58 trillion dollars (some say 74 trillion).  That unfunded obligation is growing at two to three trillion dollars each year while our current reserves are zero.  He has said that Medicare’s unfunded liability is five times worse than the next most costly entitlement program, Social Security which also has no reserves.  He has said this liability, if not eliminated, will soon bring down the American Republic just like the fall of Rome.  He has said that if we eliminated the entire Pentagon and war budget it would hardly change a thing and we would still go down under the weight of Medicare at about the same time.  He calls for prompt and decisive action now, before it is too late.

Heavens, what will he say next week when his restraints are lifted!

It is time for doctors to stop asking Congress to raise our Medicare fees.  It cannot be done.  I love my practice, but like Walker, I love my country more.  It is also past time for doctors to form direct financial relationships with our Medicare patients, or they will not be getting very good care, that’s for sure.  Come to the May 4-6 SIMPD annual meeting (See:  http://www.consumerhealthworld.com/PDFs/Vegas08/SIMPDBrochure.PDF ) at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas and perhaps like Walker, we can all talk and plan for the real future.

Thomas W. LaGrelius, MD, FAAFP,   President, SIMPD    310-378-6208

President's Letter------  February 4, 2008

Dear Colleagues and Friends of SIMPD, 

I look forward to meeting and greeting you at SIMPD’s May 4-6 conference in Las Vegas.  The venue, the Venetian Hotel is spectacular and a proper place for such a gathering of innovative minds.  Our conference is designed especially for medical practitioners who want to put the destiny of their medical practices back in their own hands. 

The Society for Innovative Practice Design (SIMPD) is populated by healthcare innovators who promote direct professional and financial arrangements with their patients in order to restore the integrity of the patient-physician relationship.  We believe that every American deserves a personal medical home with an easily and directly accessible quality physician.  We know that providing such direct practice medical homes has the potential to save and prolong lives and preserve valuable medical resources.  Without such a primary care system we believe health care will be further severely damaged.  Excellent primary care is the essential backbone of a functional medical system.  We are determined to restore that kind of excellent primary care step by step, practice by practice.  

Bring your curiosity, your creativity and your questions to this unique gathering of entrepreneurial physicians.  Learn how they are creating health care models that restore the doctor patient relationship and the dignity of our profession while providing the best possible care.  Learn how you too can design and build such a successful, satisfying practice.

The profession of medicine has been too long under the yoke and regulation of third parties that should not be standing between us and our patients as they now do. If you have been working for the wrong employer (the insurance industry and government) and want to learn from the creativity and resourcefulness of practitioners and industry leaders in the vanguard of change, this is the conference for you.  Learn how to promote easy access to preventive services and provide a higher quality of life for your patients, while making your life more fulfilling and rewarding.  Lean how to give yourself and your patients a better day every day.

For more information on SIMPD and the conference, visit our website, www.simpd.org. You can register online. I look forward to meeting you in May! 

Sincerely,

Thomas W. LaGrelius, MD, FAAFP

President