Our Work - Take Medicine Back

Private equity ownership of emergency medicine groups is incompatible with the ethical practice of emergency medicine.

The proliferation of corporate- and private equity-funded EM residency programs is a danger to public health and antithetical to a mission of training EM physicians to act primarily in their patients’ interest.

Opaque billing practices are anticompetitive and obscure physician and patient insight into the organizations that benefit from often outrageous billing practices.

Notional supervision of non-physician practitioners is ubiquitous, unsafe and must end.

“Termination-without-cause” employment practices in CMG contracts serve to deter physicians from their primary duty of advocating for their patients.

Any replacement to the current EM model must be uncompromisingly transparent.

The ethics of medicine, including its financing, should be required learning in medical education.

Commitment to Transparency

Public benefit companies (PBLLCs) have an expanded transparency requirement and must report biennially on their public impact. The state can then require that this report be verified by a third party. Though not required by law, Take Medicine Back, PBLLC exists as a 100% volunteer organization with transparency as a core value.

Public Benefit Companies Explained

Public benefit companies (PBLLCs) are born from a relatively new state-level designation first created in 2010 that allows companies to prioritize public benefit over profits. As of March 2018, 35 states and Washington, DC have passed legislation allowing for the creation of these benefit corporations. Unlike the 501(c)(3) federal designation, donations to a public benefit company are not tax deductible. However, 501(c)(3) companies are restricted from participating in the legislative process while public benefit companies are not.

Delaware public benefit LLCs are required to define their social benefit. The following is the legally incorporated social benefit of Take Back Medicine:

“Take Medicine Back, PBLLC, is intended to produce a public benefit by operating in a responsible and ethical manner by imparting education and advocacy to the public regarding the corporate takeover of modern medicine which has led to the financial exploitation of patients and the erosion of trust between healthcare providers and patients.”

Advocacy

Priorities for the TakeEMBack campaign include the following:

GIVE BACK TODAY!

Take emergency medicine back from corporate control so that physicians can once again act as patient advocates.