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Title: Doctors forced to interrogate patients about whether they own guns
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URL Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/048306_O ... al_reimbursement.html?AID=7236
Published: Jan 17, 2015
Author: J. D. Heyes
Post Date: 2015-01-17 12:05:22 by BTP Holdings
Keywords: Obamacare, gun owners, medical reimbursement
Views: 408
Comments: 18
Doctors forced to interrogate patients about whether they own guns Friday, January 16, 2015 by: J. D. Heyes (NaturalNews) The Obama Administration is making another play against gun owners, this time by alternately using financial rewards and penalties against doctors. According to reports, physicians who inquire whether or not their patients have loaded guns in their homes will earn extra compensation from Medicare. As reported by PatriotNewsDaily: When Dr. Vivek Murthy was confirmed as the nation's next surgeon general, politicians on both sides of the aisle expressed dismay. This was a guy who had come out forcefully in favor of gun control, having labeled firearms as a "public health threat." But while Dr. Murthy has promised not to use his position as a bully pulpit for politically-divisive topics, the Obama administration is already using the healthcare system to intrude on private gun ownership. Writing in his local Tennessee paper, The Murfreesboro Post, Dr. Mark Kestner said that, if patients had not yet been asked whether they had guns in their homes, that time was likely coming. How patients respond, though, is up to them. Comply, or else we'll cut your payments Dr. Kestner wrote: The question is usually asked as "Do you keep loaded firearms in your home?" The answer will be recorded in your health record at your doctor's office. As part of the Electronic Health Records (EHR) initiative led by the federal government your response may also be collected by the federal government. The federal law that launched Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act, includes the question as part of its provisions. However, you are not compelled by law to respond to the question. But that's not all. There are other invasive questions that the law requires physicians to ask, including, "Do you have reason to be afraid that your spouse may physically harm you?" If you are asking, what business is it of Uncle Sam's whether or not you own guns or might be a victim of domestic violence (which would be a local law enforcement issue, if true), you are not alone. "While it may appear that your doctor has suddenly taken a special interest in many more aspects of your life than they did previously, the truth is that the federal government is mandating that your doctor retrieve the information from their patients," Dr. Kestner wrote. He also notes that, under rules written into the Obamacare law, doctors have been encouraged to adopt expensive electronic medical record technology -- again, using financial incentives as a weapon to gain compliance -- and to have it "formatted in a certain way" to ensure that it can be accessed from anywhere (by government). Using Medicare reimbursement to manipulate "The federal Medicare program is structured in such a way that physicians had little choice but to comply with the program. On the one hand, if physicians complied with the program fully by last year they were rewarded with a financial incentive of several thousand dollars. However, if they delayed or failed to agree to provide the data they will be penalized by a certain percentage of Medicare payments going forward," wrote Dr. Kestner. He says that doctors who have yet to comply with the law's non-required requirements not only were denied rewards but have also been put on notice recently by Medicare that payments "will be cut 1 1/2 percent." Moreover, if they continue to refuse to comply, payments will be cut again. This is important because much of a physician's practice is dependent upon some form of Medicare/Medicaid/government-issued payment, and many of these programs already compensate physicians poorly. "In essence, the feds are using their control of Medicare reimbursement to manipulate how your physician handles your personal health information," Dr. Kestner said. Read the remainder of his column here. www.murfreesboropost.com/...-you-about-guns-cms-41109 Learn more:
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#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
Does President Obama get asked that question when he gets examined at Walter Reed Medical Center???? :) The question is usually asked as "Do you keep loaded firearms in your home?"
-Alex Kurtagic
#2. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
The doctor MAY be required to ask but no patient has any duty to answer. And he (or she) has no duty to answer truthfully if they decide to answer.
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends. Paul Craig Roberts
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat
#3. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
I find this hard to believe. I would answer that question with a question: Why would I have a loaded weapon in my home?
#4. To: James Deffenbach (#2)
Not only that, if they push it to the point where you can't resist, just say no. That seems to have been a popular catch phrase over the decades. The doctor MAY be required to ask but no patient has any duty to answer. And he (or she) has no duty to answer truthfully if they decide to answer.
#5. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
If I were dying of cancer and a doctor asked me if I had a loaded firearm, and the answer was required prior to my receiving treatment, I would find another doctor. It will get to the point to where people who need medical attention will go without just to avoid being hassled.
"Call Me Ishmael" -Ishmael, A character from the book "Moby Dick" 1851. "Call Me Fishmeal" -Osama Bin Laden, A character created by the CIA, and the world's Hide And Seek Champion 2001-2011. -Tommythemadartist
#6. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
I don't see a need for a formal interrogation since all a Dr has to do is send a copy of your current meds to the AFT, etc. I'm sure they already have a list of meds that will disqualify a patient from owning a weapon. Doctors forced to interrogate patients about whether they own guns
#7. To: Jethro Tull (#6)
Taking medications are not a precursor to disqualifying a person from owning a weapon. Only a court order has authority to disqualify such a person from owning a firearm. Second, if people are THAT stupid enough to give personal info (like owning a firearm) to a doctor, they deserve to be disqualified from owning a firearm. This is a gestapo technique and it's no different than registering a right to own a firearm. I'm sure they already have a list of meds that will disqualify a patient from owning a weapon.
#8. To: purplerose (#7)
This is all yesterday. Under ObolaCare, it will be done by fiat. Much like the IRS hammering people who don't have the approved insurance coverage. All the usual/normal rules have been trashed. Taking medications are not a precursor to disqualifying a person from owning a weapon. Only a court order has authority to disqualify such a person from owning a firearm. Second, if people are THAT stupid enough to give personal info (like owning a firearm) to a doctor, they deserve to be disqualified from owning a firearm. This is a gestapo technique and it's no different than registering a right to own a firearm.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
#9. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
Been there done this already. "none of your fucking business. stop it and do the job i came in for."
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
#10. To: purplerose (#7)
I BEG TO DIFFER.... Taking medications are not a precursor to disqualifying a person from owning a weapon. Only a court order has authority to disqualify such a person from owning a firearm. - purplerose
#11. To: Jethro Tull (#10)
Coming from New York, that would not surprise me at all. New York is the worst state for owning a firearm. Move to Florida but get the hell out of NY.
#12. To: purplerose (#11)
I left NY in 1982.
#13. To: Jethro Tull (#10)
How safe is the SAFE Act? The NY SAFE Act requires "mental health professionals, in the exercise of reasonable professional judgment, to report if an individual they are treating is likely to engage in conduct that will cause serious harm to him- or herself or others." If such a determination is made, "the Division of Criminal Justice Services will determine whether the person possesses a firearms license and, if so, will notify the appropriate local licensing official, who must suspend the license. The person's firearms will then be removed." This is pure BS. And, Illinois is much worse for owning a firearm. I recall back when we went to Saugerties for Woodstock '94 to work Security. They had a guy come to Chicago to give us a test so we could get a NY State Security Guard license. Three bus loads of us went there. I was making wisecracks and the guy shot his mouth off at me. I told him if I didn't get an "A" on the test, I would kiss his pitute. I got an "A" on the test. ROTFLOL From the article:
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#14. To: BTP Holdings (#13)
A total bomb from what I heard. The organizers of the original one in '69 were paying NYC cops $100 a day for their services. Not bad coin for those days. Woodstock '94
#15. To: James Deffenbach, BTP Holdings (#2)
I think a simple "hell no" will do the trick. As far as I know there's no oath to take or statement to sign, under penalty of felony charges for false statements, yet... The doctor MAY be required to ask but no patient has any duty to answer. And he (or she) has no duty to answer truthfully if they decide to answer.
"The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children." - James Hansen
#16. To: FormerLurker (#15)
Yeah, I guess that would work. I think a simple "hell no" will do the trick. As far as I know there's no oath to take or statement to sign, under penalty of felony charges for false statements, yet...
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends. Paul Craig Roberts
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat
#17. To: FormerLurker (#15)
Certainly true. They can kill you, but they can't eat you. That's against the law. LOL "hell no" will do the trick. As far as I know there's no oath to take or statement to sign, under penalty of felony charges for false statements, yet...
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
#18. To: Jethro Tull (#14)
A total bomb from what I heard. I came in to eat dinner at the end of shift, and sat down at a table. There was a vendor sitting across from me. He said, "Buddy, you look like you been thru the war." I said, "You know something? I feel like it." ;) Woodstock '94
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
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