Agenda and Speaker Bios - Thrive, Not Just Survive XXIV - May 20, 2016

8/17/2019 Agenda and Speaker Bios - Thrive, Not Just Survive XXIV - May 20, 2016

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Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, A voice for private physicians since 1943

AAPS SPRING REGIONAL MEETING – MAY 20, 2016 – DALLAS, TEXAS – AGENDA & SPEAKER BIOS

Part I: (Salon E)

Thrive, Not Just Survive XXIII, Building a Healthy

Independent Practice Workshop

12:55pm – 1:00pm Welcome & Introductions

1:00pm – 1:30pm

Cash and Out-of-Network: Good for Medicine as Free Agency is for Sports

Andrew Schlafly, J.D., General Counsel, AAPS

Andy Schlafly has been the General Counsel of AAPS for

nearly two decades, leading the legal effort to preserve

private medicine. He has argued many cases in trial and

appellate courts, and his recent victories include

compelling a hospital to produce witnesses at its internal

sham peer review, for the benefit of an AAPS member.

Andy has three lawsuits pending to defeat MOC. He has

also helped defeat bad legislation at the state level,

including a bill that would ban out‐of‐network charges

and another bill in some states that would impose MOC

through the back door of the Interstate Medical

Licensure Compact. Andy has won jury trials for an AAPS

member against Aetna, and led several efforts to

overturn ObamaCare and block its unconstitutional

implementation. His college degree is in engineering,

and his law degree is from Harvard, where he was an

editor of the Harvard Law Review .

1:30pm – 2:00pm

Opting Out of Medicare

Lawrence R. Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.N.

Dr. Huntoon is editor‐in‐chief of the Journal of American

Physicians and Surgeons. He is also a past president of

the AAPS, serves on the AAPS board of directors, and is

chairman of the AAPS Committee to Combat Sham Peer

Review. He is an unrepentant lampoonist, whose

subjects have included Medicare bureaucrats, otherwise

known as the Blue Bunglers, managed care moguls, and

others who are intent on demeaning, devaluing,attacking, and oppressing those who practice medicine.

In addition to his collection of managed care cartoons,

known as Huntoon Lampoons, his creations have

included the WEDONT CARE HMO Card, and his

collection of correspondence with HCFA and Medicare

bureaucrats, known as “Little Frank,” which now stands

over ten feet tall and weighs well over 200 pounds.

Trained as a medical research scientist with a Ph.D. in

neurophysiology, Dr. Huntoon is a practicing solo

neurologist who is opted out of Medicare and runs a

third‐party‐free practice in the Buffalo, NY area.

2:00pm – 2:20pm Adam I. Harris, M.D.

San Antonio Orthopedic Specialists, San Antonio, TX

http://www.saorthospecialists.com

Dr. Adam Harris graduated cum laude from Yale

University with distinction in Molecular Biophysics and

Biochemistry before attending medical school at the

University of California, San Diego. Dr. Harris then

completed his orthopædic training at Rush Presbyterian

St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago. After his

residency, he completed a fellowship in Adult

Reconstruction (Joint Replacement) under Dr. JorgeGalante, and a research fellowship addressing issues in

the biochemistry of articular (joint) cartilage. For four

and a half years, he also taught orthopædic surgical

residents who followed in the program at Rush. When

Dr. Harris became a father, he opted to doff his

primarily academic hat, to concentrate on direct

patient care, and found his way to San Antonio. Dr.

Harris introduced several less invasive and tissue

sparing techniques for hip and knee replacement to San

Antonio and South Texas. Originally part of a large

group, in July 2002, he established his own private

practice in order to maintain the focus on individual

patient care. In 2008, Dr. Harris opted‐out of Medicare

and his leadership in the free market medical

movement has been featured on NBC’s Today Show

and other media outlets.

2:20pm – 2:50pm Q & A for Panel One

2:50pm – 3:05pm BREAK

3:05pm – 5:30pm Case Studies: Third‐Party‐Free Prac

3:05pm – 3:25pm Josh Umbehr, M.D.

Atlas MD, Family Practice, Wichita, KS,

www.Atlas.md

Dr. Umbehr majored in human nutritional sciences at

Kansas State University, where he did research on the

effects of vitamin A on lung cancer. He received his

M.D. from the University of Kansas School of Medicine

and completed his family medicine residency at Wesley

Medical Center. After becoming a board‐certified family


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physician, he opened AtlasMD, a practice he had been

dreaming of for nearly a decade. In this practice, he is

able to shrug off the burdens and restrictions of

government and insurance regulation to focus solely on

patients and their needs. His oldest child, Katelyn, has

Down syndrome, and supporting the Down Syndrome

Society of Wichita is a key focus of AtlasMD.

3:25pm – 3:45pm Robert Sewell, M.D.

MASTER CENTER® for Minimally Invasive Surgery,Southlake, TX, http://mastercenter‐northtexas.com

Dr. Sewell is a graduate of the University of Texas

Medical Branch in Galveston, the class of 1974. He

completed the General Surgery Residency program at

the University of Texas Health Science Center in San

Antonio and began his practice in the Dallas ‐ Fort

Worth region in 1979. He is currently in solo practice in

Southlake, Texas, and is a nationally recognized expert

in the field of laparoscopic surgery, having lectured on

various minimally invasive procedures across the

country and around the world. He is a Past‐President of

the American Society of General Surgeons and a formerGovernor of the American College of Surgeons. Dr.

Sewell is an outspoken advocate for the independent

profession of medicine. Over the last several years he’s

authored a series of novels based on the realities of our

crumbling health care system. The five novels

comprising A Surgeon’s Heart are epic stories of a

courageous surgeon's love affair with his profession,

and his battle against the twin forces of political power

and corporate greed which threaten his ability to

provide life‐saving care for children in desperate need.

Learn more at http://www.asurgeonsheart.com/.

3:45pm – 4:05pm Kristin Story Held, M.D.

Stone Oak Ophthalmology, San Antonio, TX

http://www.stoneoakeyes.com

Dr. Held is a board certified ophthalmologist and

ophthalmic surgeon. She is a Phi Beta Kappa Graduate

from the Univ. of TX at Austin and received her medical

degree from the Univ. of TX Medical School at San

Antonio where she was elected to AOA. Following her

internship in internal medicine and residency in

ophthalmology, Dr. Held joined the faculty at the Univ.

of TX Health Science Center at San Antonio where she

taught residents and medical students and served as

Director of the County Ophthalmology Clinic. Shemaintains an academic affiliation as a Clinical Professor

in the Department of Ophthalmology. For the past 20

years she has been in private practice in San Antonio.

On October 1, 2015 her practice became completely

third party free. She is actively developing an “alternate

universe” with a group of San Antonio physicians,

where physicians can practice through a direct patient

care model called BridgeTwoHealth.com. Dr. Held is

the Co‐Founder of AmericanDoctors4Truth.org and

serves on the National Physicians Council for

Healthcare Policy and AAPS Board. She has read and

reported on the Affordable Care Act, MACRA, and the

proposed MACRA rules. Dr. Held has been a guest on

Your World w/ Neil Cavuto, Fox and Friends, and

numerous radio & internet shows across the country

discussing Obamacare and healthcare from the

trenches of real life medical practice. She is married

and has four daughters; the oldest is a dermatology

resident, the second is a 3rd year medical student. Her

father is a former chairman of neurosurgery, her mom

a retired R.N. Please follow @kksheld on Twitter and

follow her blog at KrisHeldMD.wordpress.com.

4:05pm – 4:25pm Juliette Madrigal‐Dersch, M.D.

Internal Medicine & Pediatrics, Marble Falls, TX

Dr. Juliette Madrigal‐Dersch is a graduate of Texas A&M

Medical School, and was Chief Resident at OU School of

Medicine. She started her own traditional medical

practice in 1992 in Marble Falls, Texas. She makes

house calls and gives discounts to teachers and

preachers and sees patients who have cancer for free.

Dr. Madrigal is the Burnet County Health Authority and

Medical Director of the Horseshoe Bay and Marble Falls

Fire Departments. She is a Past‐President of AAPS andis working to introduce medical students to the

benefits of third‐party‐free practice as a board member

of the Benjamin Rush Institute. Dr. Madrigal has an

active speaking schedule including appearances on

Cavuto and NBC News. Her practice was featured by

the Wall Street Journal in an August 2013 multi‐page

story on physicians opting out of Medicare.

4:25pm – 5:30pm Q & A for Panel Two

5:30pm – 6:00pm

Solutions Connecting Patients and Physicians Outside

of ObamaCare. Ralph Weber, AEP, CFP, CLU, ChFC,

GBA, REBC, Founder, MediBid.com

Ralph F. Weber, President and CEO of MediBid, is a

writer, entrepreneur, Registered Employee Benefits

Consultant, Group Benefits Associate, Accredited Estate

Planner, Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life

Underwriter, Chartered Financial Consultant, member of

NAHU’s national transparency committee, and member

of Mensa International. He currently resides in the

Houston area. Weber has been in the benefits business

since the mid‐1990s, serving clients in the US, Canada,

and around the globe. After experiencing too many

family members being victimized by the Canadiansocialized health care system, he moved to the U.S. with

his family. He promotes Quality in Transparency of care,

in the U.S. Health Market. Weber's goal is to create a

free‐market health care system to help patients improve

quality and save money. Most marketplaces thrive with

transparency and competition, and his belief is that a

lack of transparency and competition in medical care has

resulted in higher prices. With Free Market Healthcare

product design and plan design for cost containment,

Ralph offers solutions to a healthcare crisis of finding

ways to pay for the medical treatment we demand.


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Part II:

POLITICS and YOUR PRACTICE 2016

RECEPTION, DINNER, & BRIEFING

6:00pm – 6:30pm Reception (Salon F)

6:30pm – 6:40pm (Salon E)

Initiatives to Protect Private Medicine.

Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director, AAPS

Jane M. Orient obtained her undergraduate degrees in

chemistry and mathematics from the University of

Arizona in Tucson, and her M.D. from Columbia

University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1974.

She completed an internal medicine residency at

Parkland Memorial Hospital and University of Arizona

Affiliated Hospitals and then became an Instructor atthe University of Arizona College of Medicine. She has

been in solo private practice since 1981 and has served

as Executive Director of the Association of American

Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) since 1989. She is the

author of YOUR Doctor Is Not In: Healthy Skepticism

about National Healthcare, Sutton's Law (a novel about

where the money is in medicine today), and the second

through fourth editions of Sapira's Art and Science of

Bedside Diagnosis. She is the editor of AAPS News and

is the managing editor of the Journal of American

Physicians and Surgeons.

6:40pm – 6:55pm

Legislation Impacting Independent Physicians and

Their Patients in the 114th Congress. Charles Sauer

Charles Sauer is the AAPS boots‐on‐the‐ground around

Capitol Hill. He is an entrepreneur, economist and

policy specialist. He has spent time on Capitol Hill

working for the Chairman of the Finance Committee; he

has worked for a Governor on tax, immigration, and

labor issues; and was Deputy Legislative Director for an

academic think tank focusing on tax, finance, and

healthcare. On The Hill he is known for developing free

market solutions and effective legislative coalitions.

Charles runs the Market Institute, is a founder of the

Savings and Retirement Foundation, Co‐Director of the

Inventor’s Project, and host of the Prosperity Caucus.

Charles writes for Forbes and the Weekly Standard .

6:55pm – 7:10pm

Saving American Medicine

Melinda Woofter, M.D., AAPS President

Melinda J. Woofter, M.D., FAAD, FASMS, is a

dermatologist and Mohs surgeon maintaining a solo

practice in Granville, Ohio. For the past several years,

she has served as an AAPS board member and a

delegate to the Ohio State Medical Association, where

she was instrumental in the successful passage of

resolutions defending and protecting independent

physicians and their patients. Dr. Woofter was installed

as the 2015‐2016 President of AAPS at the AAPS 72nd

Annual Meeting last fall in St. Louis. In 2014, she was

asked to serve on the Resolutions Committee for the

OSMA. She received her MD at Southern Illinois

University School of Medicine. She completed her

residency in internal medicine at SIU, followed by

appointment to chief resident and junior faculty.

Following her internal medicine training, she completed

her residency in dermatology at the University of

Wisconsin.

7:10pm – 7:40pm DINNER SERVED


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7:40pm – 8:10pm

Innovations in Paying for Medical Care You Haven't

Heard About. Merrill Matthews, Ph.D.Merrill Matthews, Ph.D., is a resident scholar with the

Institute for Policy Innovation. He is a public policy

analyst specializing in health care issues and is the

author of numerous studies in health policy and other

public policy issues. He is past president of the Health

Economics Roundtable for the National Association for

Business Economics, the largest trade association ofbusiness economists. For nine years Dr. Matthews was

executive director of the Washington, DC‐based Council

for Affordable Health Insurance, a health insurance

trade association. National Journal recognized the

Council as one of the most effective health policy

organizations in Washington. Dr. Matthews served for

10 years as the medical ethicist for the University of

Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Institutional

Review Board for Human Experimentation, and has

contributed chapters to several books, including

Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate, The

21st Century Health Care Leader and, in 2009, Stop

Paying the Crooks (on Medicare fraud). He also serves

as vice chairman of the Texas Advisory Committee of

the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He is a regular

columnist for Forbes.com and Rare.US.com and has

been published in numerous journals and newspapers,

including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,

Investor’s Business Daily, Barron’s, USA Today and the

Washington Times. He was an award‐winning political

analyst for the USA Radio Network, and for several

years had a daily one‐minute commentary on Sirius‐XMRadio. In 2008 and again in 2014 the BBC invited him to

star in a program on welfare reform in Great Britain,

and specifically Wales. Dr. Matthews received his Ph.D.

in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas.

8:10pm – 8:30pm Wrap-Up and More Updates on AAPS Legal ActionsProtecting Independent Physicians

Andrew Schlafly, J.D., General Counsel, AAPS

(see bio on first page)

SATURDAY, May 21 EVENTS:

7:30am: AAPS Board of Directors Continental Breakfast (Irving Ballroom)

8:00am: AAPS Board of Directors Spring Meeting (Irving Ballroom)

9:00am to Noon: Texas Chapter Meeting (Salons B & C)

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

BE SURE TO TURN IN YOUR EVALUATION SHEET TO OBTAIN YOUR CME CERTIFICATE .

Plan NOW to Attend the AAPS 73rd

Annual Meeting:

September 22‐24, 2016: Oklahoma City – The Epicenter of Price Transparency

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Agenda and Speaker Bios - Thrive, Not Just Survive XXIV - May 20, 2016