The National Commission on Physician Payment Reform issued a report yesterday that calls for the elimination of the fee-for-service (FFS) model used to pay doctors. The Commission declares a nonpartisan status but far left progressives see moving away from FFS essential; they consider it the primary obstacle to socialized medicine. In March 2012 the Society of General Internal Medicine convened the commission to suggest new ways to pay the nation's physicians. Steven A. Schroeder, M.D. former president of the left-leaning Robert Wood Johnson Foundation chaired the commission with former Senator Majority leader Bill Frist, M.D. as Honorary Chair. RWJ funded the commission's report along with the California Healthcare Foundation, another progressive non-profit, and has been an advocate of a single payer system for decades. Frist, whose father founded HCA Hospitals, contends "We can't control runaway medical spending without changing how doctors get paid...This is a...(Read Full Post)