Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Congress / Politics / Woods Nashville Doctors Outraged Over Cooper's Insults During Private Meeting
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 1:12 PM
According to the email, Cooper unleashed his inner Don Rickles, throwing one insult after another at the physicians, who are members of the Anesthesia Medical Group. A sampling of his remarks (all of which his office confirms he made):
* "Your Washington lobbyists are obviously doing a very bad job for you or you wouldn't be so misinformed."
* "[I] never cease to be amazed at how poorly informed physicians are about the health care system."
* "Since the '60s real wages have remained flat. But physician reimbursements have grown 2-3 percent above the rate of inflation for the last 40 years. That's a transfer of about $800 billion. And you're not even grateful for it. Don't recall ever getting a thank you note for that. ..."
* "It's fine if you don't like my plan. Where is your plan? Physicians don't have a plan. You can't always be against something. You need to be for something"
* "You probably don't know this either, but did you know that a couple of Tennessee counties have the highest narcotic prescription use in the nation? Doctors passing out pills like candy. And you guys don't do anything about it"
* "[It's] almost impossible to get rid of bad doctors"
* "Wouldn't you think you'd be a little more educated about your own profession?"
* "Medicine used to be a profession. You've lost that. Now you just want to be employees."
* And lastly to the group's CEO David Whitten: "You've obviously forgotten most of what you learned in business school."
In the email, Whitten says:
"The meeting was an amazing display of arrogance, disdain and disregard. It would have taken some extraordinary effort for Mr. Cooper to have been any ruder than he was to us. His utter and complete lack of respect for physicians was completely and unapologetically evident. He clearly believes himself to be far better informed on health care than any of us. It is possible he may be but to be so dismissive of our concerns and to sling insults left and right was truly a sight to behold."
During an appearance on WTN talk radio yesterday, host Ralph Bristol asked Cooper about the meeting, and the congressman responded lamely that he thought doctor-patient confidentiality applied, as if these physicians were giving him a check-up while he berated them. Here's that exchange with Bristol:
Q: Do you have a general lack of respect for doctors and their knowledge of the system that they are working in?
Cooper: No Ralph, I love doctors. I want the best medical advice for me and my family and for everybody in it in this country. I do think that doctors are very busy people, I know that they are really stressed out right now and I know that they have to rely on other people, nurses inclouded, and yes, some doctor groups have Washington lobbyists and I have been critical of their lobbyists in Washington because for example, the largest group of doctors in America, the AMA, endorsed HR3200. Now most doctors I've talked to back here are not for HR3200, and they are not even aware that their own lobbyists have endorsed it back in Washington. So that's the sort of disconnect that I was referring to. but I really was surpised by that email because I thought when you met with your own doctor or another group of doctors in a private meeting that what was said was confidential. I meet with doctors all the time. Half my kin folks are doctors. I love doctors."
Pith isn't sure what to make of all this but, if Cooper's pissing off doctors, he's probably on the right track here. Cooper's flack, Peter Boogaard, defends his boss for his honesty, saying it's not unusual for the congressman to speak candidly with players in the health care debate:
"Jim went to their offices, at their request, and asked him to speak frankly. He did. When the pharmaceutical people and the health insurance companies want to meet, he's equally as frank with them. He thinks the whole system is screwed up, and that EVERYONE has a role to play in fixing it. There are a lot of vested interests, and a lot of people don't want change. He even faults many already-insured patients, because so many people have no 'skin in the game' or price-sensitivity for all of the treatment that they receive that they often don't need, costs a lot, and can harm them. Shannon Brownlee's book 'Overtreated' is one of the books that he recommends to anybody who wants to understand the whole system, because she sort of blames everyone."
Comments (42)
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I agree with everything Jim Cooper said. Sounds like the docs are upset that someone called them out for their arrogance and greed.
Murray and Uriah Heep -
you slap him on the back for being rude to doctors
do you get after him for advocating on behalf of Big Insurance ? you know, the folks who up premiums, deny treatment, make profit off the bankrupting of your fellow Tennesseans ???
and of course I'm sure you got after this so called "Fiscal Conservative" for voting yes on HR 2346 which gave $26 Billion of your tax dollars to bail out European banks.
you do that, right ??
That picture is horrifying. Someone send Rickles to a death panel so he'll stop frightening me.
News Flash The doctors hate the big insurance. Cooper is just another scum sucking, boot licking, politician working for Big Insurance and Big Banking not you the people of TN
Well Clare, since you asked so nicely:
"you slap him on the back for being rude to doctors"
No, I congratulate him for telling it straight to a private group of anesthesiolgists, complete with a CEO. I would feel badly if he treated a group of Vanderbilt or General Hospital (or even Baptist or St. Thomas) family practitioners or internists or pediatricians or others who work long and hard and unpredictable hours on the front lines of patient care.
do you get after him for advocating on behalf of Big Insurance ? you know, the folks who up premiums, deny treatment, make profit off the bankrupting of your fellow Tennesseans ???
Perhaps you noticed that I said I may have to UPGRADE my regard for him. One reason why my regard for him is so low is that he has generally done Big Insurance's bidding for the past 20 years.
and of course I'm sure you got after this so called "Fiscal Conservative" for voting yes on HR 2346 which gave $26 Billion of your tax dollars to bail out European banks.
I don't know enough about that to express an opinion.
If you could see my recent bill from these ba$tards (Anesthesia Medical Group) -- NO ONE could argue that we don't need health care reform, and that certain medical "professionals" aren't taking full advantage of a broken system. Let's just say my bill from them was only $100 less than my bill from Summit Hospital, for a same-day procedure...and that's after my poor excuse for personal Blue Cross got done paying their share.
I'm guessing what Coop was really saying is that HE is offended because the doctors haven't given him enough money! And they have the nerve to ask for his support!
Does anyone else find it odd that this practice group would invite Cooper to speak speak and then send an email to the press repeating portions of Cooper's remarks and calling him names? Jeff, pick up the phone and call Mr. Whitten. Something is very strange here.
I think Cooper is losing it. The pressure is clearly getting to him.
But this is typical Cooper behavior. He is a nice guy until you actually push back on him. He thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, when he's probably only in the top 25% of smartest in the room. And with doctors, he might be top 50% smartest in the room.
The irony of Cooper's comments are the following: "It's fine if you don't like my plan. Where is your plan? Physicians don't have a plan. You can't always be against something. You need to be for something."
All of Coop's health career has been being against something. Against the Clinton plan in 1994. And against "moving to fast" now. He plays pundit, noting there aren't votes in the Senate, instead of telling us how he is going to get a public option done. His 'alternative bills' are nothing but ruses to make it appear like he is doing something besides opposing. But he is an opposer.
Cooper, get with the program.
What do you expect from a shiftless bastard who has never held a real job and has lived off his family name? It is time for this asshole to dig some ditches. Make sure that no foundation or university hires him or his family after he finally gets booted out, too.
Maybe he can clean up puke at a hospital, including that he induces.
Why so catty at the peculiarities of Mr James Hayes Shofner Cooper? Can't we appreciate all the wonderful things he's done for all Nashville?
from Bruce Barry (2002)
http://tinyurl.com/msllpm
"... Cooper was one of only three House Democrats back in 1990 to vote against the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which extended discrimination protections to the disabled in employment and public accommodations. The House vote for ADA was 403-20; even Republicans approved the bill by a more than nine-to-one margin."
"Cooper voted on two occasions (in 1991 and 1994) against proposals to ban various forms of assault weapons. "
"Cooper was also hostile to civil liberties—and free expression in particular—on the issue of flag desecration."
"But according to a 1994 Congressional Budget Office report, Cooper’s health care plan would have left tens of millions of Americans without health insurance and ballooned the federal deficit by perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars. The biggest fans of his approach were private health care operators: As the Center for Public Integrity documented in a 1994 report, Cooper collected less than $10,000 in campaign donations from health care industry sources in the election cycle before he introduced his proposal (1991-1992), but more than $460,000 in the following cycle (1993-1994). As Michelle Cottle wrote in a 1996 analysis in Washington Monthly, Cooper’s health care plan “earned him the moniker Mr. Managed Care, and the insurance industry contributions to his campaign marked him as the puppet of special interests.”
Say what you want about Cooper, but he does present alternatives. He had an alternative plan in 1994 and he has clearly said he supports the Wyden-Bennett bill this time. It's unfair to say he simply opposes legislation.
Cooper doesn't support any legitimate alternatives. He presents new alternatives in order to put a monkey wrench in the wheel, because all of his alternatives are unpopular and not likely to pass. Has he ever passed any major piece of health care legislation (that he sponsored), given that he claims to be an expert?
Cooper has no interest in health care besides blocking it, until this week when he may have finally realized he got his constituents mad. He is backtracking it appears, but in my opinion, it is about 15 years too late.
This is truly amazing for a congressman to tell one of his CONSTITUENTS:
"It's fine if you don't like my plan. Where is your plan?"
Cooper is the only elected congressman living in the 5th district, as far a I can tell. I don't think the doctor's job is to craft a bill in Congress.
Cooper thinks we are all legislators, infinitely proposing new bills and new alternatives. But we are not. Representative democracy works this way. The 1 congressman in the 5th district makes decisions, based on both positive and negative feedback from voters. He doesn't get bills from doctors or yell at them because they haven't put down their stethoscopes long enough to write a bill for him.
Crazy. Time to boot Coop.
Let's just get to it.
Cooper is pissed because the AMA endorsed a bill that he doesn't support and he lost his cool and decided to vent about it in front of a bunch of doctors.
Cooper doesn't support it because he has been locked out of the process of writing it.
'Nuff said.
Southern Beale: Yes, as the last half-dozen or so emails illustrate, there are smelly campaigns, now coming from both sides, aimed at Cooper.
The press release which started all this originated from a group of doctors who are probably against any kind of healthcare reform. They set Cooper up by inviting him to a private meeting, asking him to speak candidly, and then writing an email to the media trying to discredit him. (A short-sighted strategy, to say the least.) On the other hand, one would think that when the Congressman challenged these opponents of reform because of their misinformation and lack of an alternative, the Left would applaud, at least a little bit (as "Uriah Heep" cleverly did.) Instead,they organize the email campaign displayed above, loudly attacking Cooper for being smart, rich, and worst of all, a moderate. One presumes the Congressman realizes this is all an orchestrated shouting match, not a legitimate debate, and won't be influenced either way. Unfortunately, other readers may breathe this hot air and think it nourishing.
"What do you expect from a shiftless bastard who has never held a real job and has lived off his family name? It is time for this asshole to dig some ditches. Make sure that no foundation or university hires him or his family after he finally gets booted out, too.
Maybe he can clean up puke at a hospital, including that he induces."
Great post and this sums it up for so many of our politicians. This is another big reason for our country dropping into the sewer.
Thank-you "Anonymous" for demonstrating my point. Actually, Jim Cooper has had "real jobs," both as a lawyer and an investment banker, and he got elected to Congress nearly forty years after his father, a former governor, last held office. To those who recall his father as part of the segregationist wing of the Democratic party, Jim was elected despite his family name, not because of it. "Great post" indeed; no wonder you prefer anonymity.
Henry, you seem to think I've let myself be used here somehow. I'm confused. Cooper goes to a meeting, insults a bunch of doctors and they circulate an email bitching about it. No one disputes these facts. Why are you blindly loyal to Cooper? Bottom line: As a Democrat who's considered an expert on health care, he's undercutting those who support a public plan to compete against the insurance companies. Except for insurance companies, there are a lot of people who think that's wrong.
Jeff, most of these posts have nothing to do with your original story (which was pretty good,though I wish you had called Whitten.)I was just noting how the story had morphed into a bunch of lefties jumping on Cooper for his moderate views when they should have been applauding him for standing up to the anti-reform doctors.
Picked up the print edition today. No story, not even a Pith reprint, of the paper's sale, just some new names on the masthead. (Sorry to lose Caleb, by the way.) There's no excuse for that. Remember the first Banner edition after Irby et al bought it from Gannett? A big headline "Banner Returns to Local Ownership." Your paper could/should have done the same. Ignoring McNair's murder was ridiculous; ignoring the sale of the paper insults readers and ought to embarrass everyone who works there, especially the new owners. How the hell could that happen?
Hilarious.
Cooper's quoted remarks, by and large, do not address the proposed plan, or alternatives, e.g. "it's almost impossible to get rid of bad doctors....you just want to be employees." Nice dialogue, Jim. Is that the type of discourse a constituent wants with his/her congressional rep! How many years has Jim practiced medicine or run a medical practice?
While Cooper claims it's almost impossible to get rid of bad doctors, (isn't that the State's problem), we can be sure that the current proposal will get rid of good doctors. Income attracts the best and the brightest. Getting one's M.D. and completing residency is a huge personal and financial sacrifice.
All you do is bitch, Henry. Come down to Brandon's tomorrow night and buy me a beer.
"Since the '60s, real wages have remained flat. But physician reimbursements have grown 2-3 percent above the rate of inflation for the last 40 years. That's a transfer of about $800 billion. And you're not even grateful for it. Don't recall ever getting a thank you note for that...." Jim Cooper
Is Jim Cooper the head of an insurance company? Has he been in congress since the 1960s? Why on earth does he think think doctors should be thanking him for earning a living?
I think Jim Cooper has lost touch with what his role is as a congressman and public servant and enjoying all this attention.
"You probably don't know this either, but did you know that a couple of Tennessee counties have the highest narcotic prescription use in the nation? Doctors passing out pills like candy. And you guys don't do anything about it" Jim Cooper
That's because most physicians are busy seeing and caring for patients, returning phone calls, and catching up paperwork for the insurance companies and the GOVERNMENT. Whe we get done with that, some of us like have dinner with our families or play with our kids. We do not know what sort of prescribing practices other doctors have.
Do you know who does? The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT in the form of the DEA. If problem doctors are writing bogus prescriptions and getting away with it, it's not because I'm not doing my job, it's because YOU and the DEA aren't doing yours. How about you get your own hose in order before jumping down our throats.
"Wouldn't you think you'd be a little more educated about your own profession?" Jim Cooper
I only spent 12 years getting educated about my profession. 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 4 years of training and residency prior to private practice.
Tell me about your education about my profession, Jim Cooper.
Dave,
Great comment! Coop thinks he is really smart. Cooper thinks he is an adjunct professor at the Vandy business school because the school thinks he is really smart. But they give him his title of 'professor' not because he is qualified through his own schooling (like you are), but instead because Vandy can buy access to their congressman by giving him a perch to be an 'expert' in Congress.
Cooper also thinks he was eminently qualified to be an investment banker after he lost his statewide bid. But of course the firm invited him as his political connections could bring in clients.
Cooper thinks he got elected initially to public office because he worked really hard and was qualified. But of course, he had a family name and family money that got him there.
To paraphrase Ann Richards, Cooper was born on home (run) plate and thinks he hit a triple.
Dave, you are educated and eminently qualified to have your job. Cooper doesn't realize it because he has gotten all his jobs the easy way: money, connections, and quid pro quos.
Than you for the kind words!
In addition to the 12 years of education, physicians in Tennessee, myself included, do at the MINIMUM, 20 hours of continuing medical education a year, but honestly, most of do more.
We subscribe to and read our specialty journals and attend meetings and conferences throughout the year. And before anybody starts talking about luxury trips to Hawaii, I'm talking about meetings in hospital conference rooms and lecture halls.
You do have the option of combining family vacation with out of town medical education, but I'd rather devote my vacation time to friends and family.
Again, I'd like to know what Jim Cooper meant by Tennessee physicians not being "more educated about your own profession?"
I have written much about health care over the years, and defended Jim Cooper's health care plan in these pages with Bruce Dobie in the 90s.
But a writer in the Wall Street Journal recently said that Obama's public option will ruin healthcare because it will create the equivalent of the private school/public school divide for health care, where private medicine will be unaffordable and unattainable for most, and public medicine will be unspeakably bad and costly. This will satisfy the left, of course, because nearly all Washington senators and congressmen, and the president send their children to private schools and have long ago abandoned their creation, the grossly underachieving US public school system. So too can we expect that they will exclusively use private healthcare for themselves and their families and be satisfied that the newly destroyed public healthcare system will be there for the rest of us. It is well known that they are already exempting certain favored groups from the public option.
Likewise, when Cooper said: "[I] never cease to be amazed at how poorly informed physicians are about the health care system," he's probably right. I don't expect my doctor to be informed about the system--the system being the unfathomable matrix of Medicare regs, the metrics of running a multi-state publically traded diversified healthcare company, the who's in, who's out gaming of beltway lobbyists, the pricing imperatives of multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies, the comparative advantages and disadvantages of international health care laws, the politics of publically funded abortions, etc.
I am content that my doctor only knows how to lower my blood pressure, reduce my cholesterol, protect me from cancer, or save me from it after I get it, and otherwise help me live longer and healthier. I think that's enough. That is, I'd rather have a doctor with me on a 12 month ocean voyage than Jim Cooper, despite his superior knowledge of the health care system. Though I would be fascinated to know what medical inflation cost trends have been since 1990, I'd be more interested what he knows the minute I have a cardiac arrest. Not much.
If the question is about quality healthcare, doctors have the answer not politicians. If the question is about caring for others, doctors have the answers not politicians. If the question is which drug will work, doctors have the answer not politicians. If the question is what lifestyle changes should I make to improve my life, doctors know the answer, not politicians. If the question is which surgical procedure would be safer for my loved ones, doctors know the answer not politicians.
However, if the question is, how do we manipulate the "system" so the insured pick up the tab for the uninsured, politicians know the answer not doctors. If the question is how do we reduce the quality of medical care so everyone can have it whether they pay for it or not, politicians have the answer not doctors. If the question is how do we make sure that older people are forced sacrifices to the inhuman manifesto of "quality adjusted life years", politicians have the answer not doctors. If the question is how can the federal government seize control of America's largest industry--the health care industry that employs 14 million people from the free market, politicians have the answer not doctors. If the question is how can personal medical care be delivered by intrusive centralized government committees, and not by personal physicians, government has the answer not doctors.
It just really depends on what you want, better systems or better health care. Better systems, ask Jim Cooper. Better health care, ask your doctor.
You expended a whole lot of words, Andrew, in making the simple point that you're an ideologue.
"If the question is how can the federal government seize control of America's largest industry--the health care industry that employs 14 million people from the free market, politicians have the answer not doctors."
Maybe that's the problem. Maybe it's America's largest industry because it the one thing people will pay anything to get, its costs are unencumbered by any real control, and too many powerful people are getting seriously filthy-ass rich off it.
"If the question is how can personal medical care be delivered by intrusive centralized government committees, and not by personal physicians, government has the answer not doctors."
WTF are you talking about? No one is suggesting that and you know it. Spew your lies on Phil Valentine.
Boyd, I would guess that you use the word "ideologue" a lot. It's often mis-used as a generalized insult. Just so you use the word correctly in the future you might as well know that an ideologue is someone who is blindly partisan or idealistic. I am neither. I know Jim Cooper and have voted for him every time I've had the chance. He's one of the brightest pols that we have in Tenn. He just stepped over the line in the referenced meeting. Otherwise, since we are getting to know each other, I am a pragmatist. There is nothing that I said above that could be deemed as idealism. You and I may not agree on these policy issues but that doesn't make me a de facto ideologue.
As for Taterman, all I can say is: anger management, give it a shot.
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patients are satisfied with their sterilizations. Tubal reversal is microsurgery to repair the fallopian tube after a tubal ligation procedure.
Usually there are two remaining fallopian tube segments—the proximal tubal segment that emerges from the uterus and the distal tubal segment that ends with the fimbria next to the ovary. The procedure that connects these separateds of the fallopian tube is called tubal reversal or microsurgical tubotubal anastomosis.
In a small percentage of cases, a tubal ligation procedure leaves only the distal portion of the fallopian tube and no proximal tubal opening into the uterus. This may occur when monopolar tubal coagulation has been applied to the isthmic segment of the fallopian tube as it emerges from the uterus. In this situation, a new opening can be created through the uterine muscle and the remaining tubal segment inserted into the uterine cavity. This microsurgical procedure is called tubal implantation, tubouterine implantation, or uterotubal implantation.
Tubal reversal, if done by a specialist microsurgeon, has a high success rate and few complications. Successful repair of the fallopian tubes is now possible in 98% of women who have had a tubal ligation, regardless of the type of sterilization procedure.[citation needed]
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