When it comes to the greatest challenges facing physicians, whether it be excessive documentation required by government programs, insurance companies that attempt to unfairly deny payments, or bad legislation, one physician alone can’t accomplish much. But the combined clout of 4,300 physicians who are members of the Arkansas Medical Society (AMS) has a huge impact, said AMS President G. Edward Bryant, Jr., MD, an ophthalmologist practicing in West Memphis.
“Physicians in the state know what a good job we are doing, especially in the legislative session where we continue to keep patients from being abused by unsafe medical practices,” Bryant said. “Some of the legislation is driven by corporations more interested in profits than good medicine. We work to protect the patients.”
One example is a big push for inappropriate telemedicine such as corporations that offer a “doctor in a box” kiosk where patients can do a teleconference and pay $40 or $50 to be diagnosed and treated by a physician. Bryant said the AMS has helped the Arkansas Medical Board develop practice patterns for telemedicine that include an initial physical encounter with the patient.
“Once a patient becomes part of the practice, then a phone call consultation from the physician may work,” Bryant said. “But, initially for a patient to call a doctor anywhere in the U.S., someone who has no idea who you are or your medical history, that is not a good practice pattern. We want to keep quality at the forefront of medical care, not convenience.”
There is no opposition to telemedicine when used properly such as emergency room consultations for stroke patients. But inappropriate telemedicine can lead to poor or delayed care, and could exacerbate problems such as the overuse of antibiotics.
The AMS also works with its national counterpart, the American Medical Association, on national legislation to address problems such as excessive record keeping.
“The Affordable Care Act has some good insurance reforms, but other things are not good for the physician\patient relationship,” he said. “Federal regulations regarding meaningful use and electronic medical records are burdensome and don’t provide better care for patients. To overburden physicians with redundant paperwork and place a computer between us and the patient in the office is not helpful. We are trying to improve quality, and we can’t do that with redundant paperwork. I think the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services have good intentions, but it becomes more focused on a bureaucracy rather than helping patients one-on-one.”
Bryant spends a lot of time going to meetings.
“I want physicians to try to communicate with other physicians,” he said. “I try to go to every meeting I can to meet other physicians. With a united voice we can accomplish something and protect quality patient care. There are so many commercial entities out there that want to control the practice of medicine. There are hospitals that want to control doctors, and nurses who want to practice like physicians, but don’t have the training to be physicians. There are businessmen who want to own clinics who are more interested in profits than good healthcare. The medical society is about advocating good patient care. We have a combined voice people listen to.”
An example where the medical society can be helpful is with unfair insurance company payment denial by alleging coding irregularities.
“If one physician is trying to fight that, you lose,” Bryant said. “Big nationwide companies are hard to stand up to. But when the medical society comes in and intervenes, we can prevent that. We have actually gotten insurance companies to stop unfair recoupment of payment.”
Many physicians don’t realize how much work the medical society does with legislation governing medicine on the state level. To address that, the AMS has developed a video detailing the accomplishments of the most recent session of the Arkansas Legislature.
“The state legislature looks to physicians and the medical society if they really want to find out what is going on with medical care,” he said. “They trust us to be straightforward and honest. We don’t give them propaganda. We tell them the facts and the facts usually are on our side getting a bill passed or stopping bad legislation. Once a law is passed, physicians help formulate regulations based on the law, for review by the legislative committees.”
The video will first be distributed to Northwest Arkansas. One of Bryant’s goals is to increase membership in that area, which has a tremendous number of new physicians.
The AMS has been successful in maintaining a fair legal system for malpractice lawsuits.
“In Arkansas we do have the lowest malpractice lawsuit rate in the country, which is good,” Bryant said. “It is a small state and we have high quality medical care.”
Bryant grew up in a medical family in Helena. His mother was a surgical nurse, and his father is an optometrist. He has three uncles and a number of cousins who are physicians in Mississippi. He recalls grinding lenses in the family’s optical lab when he was barely tall enough to see over the top of the machine. The pay was 25 cents per hour.
Bryant earned his medical degree at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Early in his medical career, he worked for his uncles delivering four or five babies a week in Shelby, Miss. He ran an emergency room company in Arkansas for several years prior to a residency in ophthalmology. He has been in solo practice in West Memphis for 30 years.
Bryant is an avid golfer who also enjoys water skiing, wind surfing and kayaking. He and his wife, Dione, who works with him in the practice, have five children and one grandchild with another on the way.