Beyond the Exam Room: Why PAMED Matters to PA patients.
BEYOND THE EXAM ROOM
Transforming Healthcare & The We The Patient Movement
A Seat at the Table — Why the PAMED Election and Pennsylvania's Potential $1 Billion Rural Health Investment Matter to Patients
Many of the decisions that affect what happens between you and your doctor are actually made far beyond the exam room. They are made in Harrisburg, through legislation and regulation, by healthcare organizations and insurers, and through decisions about how healthcare dollars are spent.
At those tables are many stakeholders with different perspectives and priorities.
Patients, physicians, and the communities they serve need a meaningful voice there, too.
Two things happening right now illustrate why I believe that matters: my campaign for Vice President of the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) and Pennsylvania's opportunity to potentially receive nearly $1 billion over five years to strengthen rural healthcare.
Why I'm Running for PAMED Vice President?
As many of you know, I am currently running a statewide campaign to become Vice President of PAMED. Did you know that PAMED gives physicians across Pennsylvania an opportunity to bring their experiences caring for patients into larger conversations about the future of healthcare in our Commonwealth?
If elected, I would enter four years of progressive leadership:
2027 — Vice President2028 — President-Elect2029 — President2030 — Immediate Past President
But I want to be clear about what that opportunity would—and would not—mean. One physician cannot transform Pennsylvania healthcare. Neither can one medical organization.
Healthcare involves patients, physicians, nurses, hospitals, legislators, insurers, employers, government agencies, community organizations, and many others. Meaningful change requires listening to different perspectives and working with multiple stakeholders.
What leadership can provide is a seat at the table and an opportunity to ask important questions.
If given the privilege to serve, I hope to be a thoughtful, independent voice for patients and physicians and to continually bring the conversation back to the relationship at the heart of medicine: The relationship between a patient and a physician.
Healthcare can become extraordinarily complicated. Sometimes complicated systems need us to return to simple questions. As healthcare policies are considered, I believe we should continually ask:
How much does it cost? Patients and taxpayers deserve transparency and responsible stewardship of healthcare dollars.
2. Do I really need this? More healthcare isn't always better healthcare. Care should be based on what is appropriate for the individual patient.
Does this decision belong within the physician-patient relationship? Whenever possible, medical decisions should remain between an informed patient and the physician caring for that patient—without unnecessary middlemen interfering in that relationship.
These three questions won't solve every healthcare problem. But they can help remind us who healthcare is supposed to serve.
Nearly $1 Billion for Rural Health? A Real-World Example
Pennsylvania's Rural Health Transformation Plan provides a timely example of why these conversations matter.
Pennsylvania received approximately $193 million in federal funding for the first year of its approved five-year Rural Health Transformation Plan. Based on that initial award, the Commonwealth has stated that Pennsylvania could receive nearly $1 billion over the next five years. The funding is renewable each year, so that full amount is not guaranteed.
That is an extraordinary opportunity. It also creates an extraordinary responsibility.
I am not a member of the committee responsible for determining how these funds are used, and serving as a PAMED officer would not give me control over those decisions. But this is exactly the type of healthcare issue where I believe we need to ask thoughtful questions.
Where will the money go?
Who will benefit?
And, most importantly, will patients living in rural Pennsylvania actually experience better healthcare because of it?
Rural Pennsylvania Is Not One Community
Pennsylvania's rural communities are diverse. What works in one part of the Commonwealth may not be what another community needs. Pennsylvania's own Rural Health Transformation Plan recognizes the importance of regional and community involvement. The plan calls for regional collaboratives that bring community and health-system partners together to identify local priorities and guide investments.
That local voice matters.
At the same time, healthcare continues to consolidate, and larger health systems have acquired community hospitals and physician practices throughout Pennsylvania. Larger health systems can be important partners in rural healthcare, but they should not automatically be assumed to have the only answer.
As these rural-health dollars are invested, we should be careful that money intended to transform rural healthcare doesn't simply become another revenue stream without creating meaningful, sustainable improvements in the communities it was intended to help.
The goal shouldn't simply be to spend money on rural healthcare. The goal should be to strengthen healthcare for people who live in rural Pennsylvania.
That requires listening to the people who know those communities best: patients, physicians, nurses, EMS professionals, pharmacists, hospitals, community organizations, local leaders, and other stakeholders. Sometimes the best solution may involve a large healthcare system. Sometimes a community may need something entirely different.
The important thing is that local communities have a meaningful voice in determining what will best serve them.
A Voice—Not the Only Voice
The Rural Health Transformation Program is just one example. Pennsylvania faces important decisions involving malpractice reform, access to care, healthcare costs, physician shortages, insurance practices, administrative burdens, hospital consolidation, and many other issues.
No one person or organization has all the answers, nor should any one voice determine what Pennsylvania healthcare should look like.
Meaningful change comes when patients, physicians, communities, and other healthcare stakeholders have a seat at the table.
If elected, I hope to contribute to that conversation by listening, building relationships, asking important questions, and helping keep our collective focus on:
What does this mean for the patient?
What does this mean for the physician caring for that patient?
What does this mean for the local community?
And does this strengthen or weaken the physician-patient relationship?
Your Prayers Matter
These are questions worth bringing to the table. As the PAMED election approaches, I am grateful for your encouragement and ask for your continued prayers—above all, that God’s will be done. If given the opportunity to serve, I hope to listen, collaborate, and be a thoughtful voice for patients, physicians, and communities across Pennsylvania—always keeping the physician-patient relationship at the heart of healthcare.
Sources & Further Reading
Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED). About PAMED.PAMED — About PAMED
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Human Services. Pennsylvania Rural Health Transformation Plan.PA Rural Health Transformation Plan
Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. $193 Million in Federal Funding for Pennsylvania’s Rural Health Transformation Plan.PA DHS — $193 Million Rural Health Award
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Rural Health Transformation Program.CMS — Rural Health Transformation Program
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