To Be the Preeminent Physician Advocacy Group
UPA believes that physician advocacy is so important because without it, solutions to the significant deficiencies in our country’s healthcare system are unlikely. Moderate to large scale business of medicine concerns are being addressed daily; national healthcare reform is occurring; yet we practicing physicians are largely unrepresented. This fact is not only to physicians’ detriment, but also to the detriment of our patients and society at large. As a profession, we have the education, the experience, and the proximity to patients that are critical to arriving at solutions, and such solutions are unlikely without our involvement.
Yet physicians as a profession are under-represented in large part because we have not been able to coalesce around an organization which can represent us. UPA endeavors to be that organization. We physicians have allowed ourselves to fracture along specialty, geographic and business turf lines, divisions which have aided few and hurt many. This is largely because laws have been created which hinder our ability as a profession to organize. These laws hinder us, but they do not prevent us from working together. UPA has spent considerable effort creating the proper organizational structure that addresses all legal issues which hinder our organization. We believe UPA provides an excellent value proposition for all physicians; and so we invite all qualified physicians to join and help us re-establish our voice as a profession. Given the unique doctor patient relationship, UPA intends to demonstrate that physician advocacy is the best possible means to patient advocacy.
Business concerns are an integral part of our country’s healthcare deficiencies. Physician advocacy requires that physicians come together in a manner in which business concerns can legally be discussed. UPA is not only about business, but it is integrally related to business so that we can have an effect. Practicing physicians will never obtain a “seat at the table” if we as a profession do not create that seat ourselves. UPA has been designed to provide that avenue, not in a dreamer’s way with flowery language lacking substance; but rather in a step by step, “nuts and bolts” way which maximizes our likelihood of success.
The specific mechanism by which UPA intends to create its effect is by obtaining, analyzing and distributing data, and regularly negotiating with large scale healthcare entities (e.g. insurance companies, government) on behalf of the physician membership. Too often the manner in which data is used scares practicing physicians (e.g. threats to cut reimbursement rates if your “quality data” is suboptimal). UPA intends to utilize various forms of data that have been available to others that have not been available to physicians in a manner fully consistent with the law, for the benefit of practicing physicians and our patients. UPA ultimately intends to employ attorneys, accountants, actuaries, statisticians and lobbyists who will work to re-strengthen the physician patient relationship and ensure that society at large maintains access to doctors.
The specific paths that UPA follows will be determined by the physician membership. UPA encourages physician input and leadership. Its inherent flexibility will allow individual physicians to pursue their goals within a cooperative environment. UPA envisions some of its members leading efforts in a wide variety of directions: for example, patient care improvement initiatives, imaging centers, laboratory services, and a direct healthcare insurance company. In short, we hope to improve the way healthcare is provided in this country by focusing on the part of the puzzle that has been glaringly absent, physician representation. We’ve developed a specific plan to accomplish this end from the ground up. We intend to focus on physician advocacy by creating a company that makes business sense and that provides a reasonable value proposition for all qualified physicians such that UPA can continue to have a positive effect in the long term.
The future of UPA is bright; and we invite you to join us.