013 - A National Leader with Tenacity and Compassion

Former AMA President Barbara McAneny is a relentless patient advocate who sees the harm done by the rapacious medical industrial complex. She spells out the toxicity caused by health system consolidation, purchase of physicians’ practices, and financial exploitation of government programs intended to serve the poor. Dr. McAneny, an oncologist, comes by her in-depth knowledge through her AMA role as well as through her own experience battling a large healthcare system in order to save the multi-specialty cancer center she co-founded in 1987. She does not want to see physician-owned practices (the “high quality, lower cost alternative”) succumb to takeover strategies by the healthcare Goliaths. At the AMA she emphasized the need to oppose “the consolidation of the healthcare market as a force that belittles patients and maximizes profit.”<br /><br />It takes about a nanosecond of talking with Barbara to feel the depth of her passion for patients. I hope you enjoy this jam-packed interview with Dr. McAneny, as she talks about her appreciation for the AMA, the unconscionable “shenanigans” of insurance companies and pharmacy benefits managers, the dire state of primary care compensation, and what physician leaders need (spoiler alert: not an MBA).