Feeding Mushrooms at Broward Health
I've received several letters from physicians asking what I have “against” the North Broward Hospital District (dba as Broward Health)..
One even wrote, “God help you if you ever need a District doctor.”
Anyhow....
My on-going issues with the nation's seventh largest tax-funded health care system are simple enough:
First, as a governmental agency, the District uses my tax dollars to engage in unfair competition with the seven private hospitals in northern Broward County – which is like a chain of tax-funded hamburger stands under-cutting Burger King.
Again, thanks to the millions of tax dollars it collects every year, the District is able to bankroll scores of sweetheart contracts with politically-connected physicians, lawyers and various other health care bottom feeders.
And finally, the District has a long and sordid history of using its steady stream of property tax dollars to mask its administrative boners, waste, fraud and incompetence.
All of which, for this life-long Jeffersonian democrat, truly sucks!
Oh yes.
Under the leadership of a staunch Republican board of Commissioners during the past decade, the tax-funded health care system has reaped increasingly fatter profits at the expense of its private competitors. (As earlier detailed on this blog.)
Like you would think a bunch of free-enterprise business type Commissioners would oppose Broward Health's use of tax dollars to wage an unfair war against its private competition.
But that ain't been the case.
Of course, it IS possible the District's seven Republican Commissioner suffer from the Rumsfeld Syndrome: Like They don't know what they don't know.
Or even worse, the Commissioners are victims of the mushroom* treatment by the District's administrators (*mushrooms, of course, are kept in the dark and fed bullshit).
For example:
Just this past Wednesday, Broward Health Commission Joel Gustafson asked the District's CEO how his staff sets the salaries of its physician-employees.
All District physician employee salaries Nask replied, are based on “comparable” doctor salaries employed by various firms throughout the nation's health care industry.
Which was little more than a pile of mushroom food served up by Nask to satisfy Gustafson and fellow Commissioners.
Too bad Commissioner Gustafson failed to ask Nask how his staff defines “comparable” – plus where and how they're getting their numbers.
Which would have gone over like asking the FDA how it establishes its acceptable industry standard for rodent meat in hotdogs.
But I digress.
Consider, if you will, a comparison of the latest national median compensation reported in the 2009 Physician Compensation Survey conducted by the American Medical Group Association (AMGA)* versus the compensation for comparable physican specialty groups employed by the District:
Annual Physician Compensation
AMGA* Survey Broward Health**
Median Median
Orthopedic Surgery $476,100 $1,390,000
Cardiology $398,000 $1,181,000
Gastroenterology $390,000 $393,000
Hematology/Oncology $315,100 $835,000
Endocrinology $212,600 $426,800
Internal Medicine $204,400 $445,000
Family Practice $197,000 $448,100
Oh yes.
As to the doctor concerned for my future fate at the hands of a District-employed physician...?
All I can say is the FDA-sanctioned level for rat meat hasn't stopped me from enjoying a good American hot dog.
*”The American Medical Group Association, which has been conducting this survey since 1986, represents interests of medical groups nationwide, including some of the nation's largest, most prestigious integrated health care delivery systems.” www.cejkasearch.com/compensation/amga
** Based on funds paid to District-employed physicians for FY 2009 as detailed in the FY 2010 The North Broward Hospital District Operating Statement prepared by the Department of Financial Management and approved by Broward Health Commissioners.
One even wrote, “God help you if you ever need a District doctor.”
Anyhow....
My on-going issues with the nation's seventh largest tax-funded health care system are simple enough:
First, as a governmental agency, the District uses my tax dollars to engage in unfair competition with the seven private hospitals in northern Broward County – which is like a chain of tax-funded hamburger stands under-cutting Burger King.
Again, thanks to the millions of tax dollars it collects every year, the District is able to bankroll scores of sweetheart contracts with politically-connected physicians, lawyers and various other health care bottom feeders.
And finally, the District has a long and sordid history of using its steady stream of property tax dollars to mask its administrative boners, waste, fraud and incompetence.
All of which, for this life-long Jeffersonian democrat, truly sucks!
Oh yes.
Under the leadership of a staunch Republican board of Commissioners during the past decade, the tax-funded health care system has reaped increasingly fatter profits at the expense of its private competitors. (As earlier detailed on this blog.)
Like you would think a bunch of free-enterprise business type Commissioners would oppose Broward Health's use of tax dollars to wage an unfair war against its private competition.
But that ain't been the case.
Of course, it IS possible the District's seven Republican Commissioner suffer from the Rumsfeld Syndrome: Like They don't know what they don't know.
Or even worse, the Commissioners are victims of the mushroom* treatment by the District's administrators (*mushrooms, of course, are kept in the dark and fed bullshit).
For example:
Just this past Wednesday, Broward Health Commission Joel Gustafson asked the District's CEO how his staff sets the salaries of its physician-employees.
All District physician employee salaries Nask replied, are based on “comparable” doctor salaries employed by various firms throughout the nation's health care industry.
Which was little more than a pile of mushroom food served up by Nask to satisfy Gustafson and fellow Commissioners.
Too bad Commissioner Gustafson failed to ask Nask how his staff defines “comparable” – plus where and how they're getting their numbers.
Which would have gone over like asking the FDA how it establishes its acceptable industry standard for rodent meat in hotdogs.
But I digress.
Consider, if you will, a comparison of the latest national median compensation reported in the 2009 Physician Compensation Survey conducted by the American Medical Group Association (AMGA)* versus the compensation for comparable physican specialty groups employed by the District:
Annual Physician Compensation
AMGA* Survey Broward Health**
Median Median
Orthopedic Surgery $476,100 $1,390,000
Cardiology $398,000 $1,181,000
Gastroenterology $390,000 $393,000
Hematology/Oncology $315,100 $835,000
Endocrinology $212,600 $426,800
Internal Medicine $204,400 $445,000
Family Practice $197,000 $448,100
Oh yes.
As to the doctor concerned for my future fate at the hands of a District-employed physician...?
All I can say is the FDA-sanctioned level for rat meat hasn't stopped me from enjoying a good American hot dog.
*”The American Medical Group Association, which has been conducting this survey since 1986, represents interests of medical groups nationwide, including some of the nation's largest, most prestigious integrated health care delivery systems.” www.cejkasearch.com/compensation/amga
** Based on funds paid to District-employed physicians for FY 2009 as detailed in the FY 2010 The North Broward Hospital District Operating Statement prepared by the Department of Financial Management and approved by Broward Health Commissioners.
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