ACEP MEMBER AMISH SHAH, MD, FACEP (D-AZ-1) is running against incumbent David Schweikert (R-AZ-1) for a House seat in Maricopa County. Dr. Shah trained at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health in New York.
ACEP Now: What obstacles exist in Congress to address hospital boarding? What would be your recommendations on how to address them?
Dr. Shah: Start to get your members of Congress to begin dialog with CMS because that’s where the rules are made that will affect this issue and solve this problem for us. We’ve got to be able to build relationships, to get the right people at the right time in the right room – at the right table – to be able to create incentives so that this doesn’t happen, and patients have better outcomes.
ACEP Now: The FTC is looking into consolidation: What are your thoughts on consolidation among insurers and providers of health care?
Dr. Shah: We have always regulated monopolies in the U.S., and FTC has always been a group that has protected people from monopoly for the benefit of the consumer and for society at large. And we’ve seen in other industries like big tech, they’ve been very hesitant to go after monopolies. Now, I think there is a place for them to carefully examine the market power in any one given industry in a given location and ask whether that meets the definition of monopoly power. I certainly hope they would do that. I was an economics major, you know, and I’d be concerned if somebody were exerting monopoly power at the expense of the consumer.
ACEP Now: How would you encourage other physicians to follow in your footsteps away from the bedside to tackle issues in Congress or a state legislature?
Dr. Shah: I’ve been saying for many years that physicians need to get involved because people who are making these decisions are not necessarily from the health care world and wouldn’t understand it the way you would. And you’re smart, kind, compassionate people who care a lot and do this for the sake of patients. It’s great to do this one patient at a time of the bedside, but also some of us need to go and be involved at the system level because the system under which we all work, you know, will be a big determinant as well, right? You can be the world’s greatest doc, right, working at the bedside over and over again, toiling away. But if you’re working in a system that doesn’t work for the patients, then you’re not having nearly the impact you would like to have.
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