Robert Ben Mitchell, DO took the unusual step of filing a Letter of Allegation (LOA) with the United Nations International Criminal Court in Geneva, Switzerland.  The letter was sent in late February and asks the court to indict both the Florida Board of Medicine (allopathic physicians - MD's) and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine (osteopathic physicians - DO's) on the charge of "Complicity in Genocide for their failure to ever fully and authoritatively intervene in the Florida Pill Mill Massacres that took place in Florida from 2001 through 2011, costing the lives of an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 people due to the drug-dealing doctors these boards did not take action against."      

An article published at FloridaHealthIndustry.com entitled Alt Weeklies:  Pill Mill Enablers on September 30, 2011 was cited in the LOA.  The article, by contributor Tara Pihn, details the extensive use of advertising by Pill Mill operators in the region's alternative weekly newspapers (New Times Miami, New Times Broward/Palm Beach and City Link).

You can read the Letter of Allegation HERE.

You can read the appendices to the Letter of Allegation HERE.

A Physician Staffing Firm (LocumTenens.com) recently completed a report entitled Accountable to Whom?  Physicians Weigh in on Value-Based Care.  Over 1200 Physicians were surveyed to determine whether physicians know a lot about value-based care and how they feel about it.

According to the survey, 61% of primary care physicians (PCPs) said they'd be willing to participate in an ACO with at least one payer.  Meanwhile, most specialists were less enthusiastic about ACO participation.  Less than half (44%) of emergency medicine doctors and slightly more than half (55%) of radiologists and surgeons favor ACO participation.

The author concludes:

"...the healthcare industry has a steep PR hill to climb to improve physician engagement if it's to move forward with value-based care. Their efforts will have to lean toward educating and actively seeking physician input in design and execution of new payment models. Without physician buy-in, no wholesale reform of healthcare can work."

Read the full report HERE.  

Using an Intuitive Surgical ($ISRG) robot for hysterectomies costs hospitals nearly $2,200 more per procedure compared to nonrobotic, minimally invasive surgical approaches, but patients didn't gain any added benefits, researchers from Columbia University and elsewhere have concluded.

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Editor's Note: FHIcommunications and Fierce Healthcare are Content Exchange Partners.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the health care organizations chosen to participate in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BCPI) Initiative.  The BCPI Initiative represents a significant expansion of CMS's use of bundled payments in traditional Medicare, and is part of an effort to incentivize greater care coordination and increase provider accountability as the agency seeks to move away from its reliance on traditional fee-for-service payments.

Read the full article here.