TUCSON, Ariz., Oct. 20, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pennsylvania is considering opening its borders to out-of-state physicians in a flawed Interstate Medical Licensure Compact that has been properly rejected by officials in Missouri, Ohio, and elsewhere. This proposal would allow abortionists from other states to practice in Pennsylvania with little or no accountability, and good Pennsylvania laws would be overridden by a new interstate medical commission, states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).
A private organization based in Texas, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), is pushing this change in state authority over the practice of medicine. Yet Texas itself refused to pass this new law, AAPS observes.
“Once a State gives away its sovereignty over the practice of medicine to an unaccountable commission that may sit in Washington, D.C., that State will never be able to get it back,” states AAPS General Counsel Andrew Schlafly.
Last year the majority of states that looked at this same proposed law declined to pass it, and less than a dozen predominantly rural states with small populations enacted it. It would be a colossal mistake for Pennsylvania, which attracts patients from other States to its preeminent teaching hospitals, to cede sovereignty to an out-of-state commission, Schlafly said.
The proposal, H.B. 1619, is endorsed by Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) and several state hospital associations, reports an article in the Pennsylvania Business Daily. But the proposed Compact is not “endorsed” by the U.S. Senate, as the article stated. “Several individual senators, who are NOT from Pennsylvania, have merely signed a letter supporting it,” writes Schlafly.
Unfortunately many hospitals are increasingly driven by a desire to merge and increase revenue, Schlafly states, rather than by genuine concerns for the long-term needs of a community.
The Compact does not actually provide any medical facilities, notes AAPS executive director Jane M. Orient, M.D. It simply sets up a procedure for “eligible” physicians to obtain multistate licenses through a private commission rather than applying directly to each state medical board as they do now.
“Eligible” means board-certified and participating in expensive, onerous “Maintenance of Certification” (MOC), Orient points out. At least 25 percent of physicians would not be eligible.
The Compact would allow hospital systems to cash in on providing telemedicine to out-of-state patients, Orient explains. This does not help patients in Pennsylvania but rather could diminish their access to the excellent hospital systems in their own state. It could also circumvent laws meant to protect Pennsylvania patients, as from unscrupulous abortionists.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943. Its motto is omnia pro aegroto, everything for the patient.
CONTACT: Contact: Andrew Schlafly, (908) 719-8608, [email protected], or Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, [email protected]