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Dayton Business Journal...
Q&A: New
president of Ohio State Medical Association
by Laura Englehart, Reporter
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Dayton surgeon Dr. Deepak Kumar looks forward to promoting change in
the way physicians and patients deliver and receive health care.
Kumar recently was named the president of the Ohio State Medical
Association, which represents 20,000 physicians statewide. In his
one-year term — which began March 25 — he hopes lawmakers will focus on
tort law reform to prevent “frivolous” lawsuits, and permanently close
gaps in the cost to provide health care and Medicare and Medicaid
reimbursement payments for physicians.
At the same time, Kumar says individuals need to have a better grasp on
their own medical problems and more accountability in their insurance
plans.
Kumar is a colon and rectal surgeon for Dayton Colon and Rectal Center
Inc. where he serves as president and a senior partner. He served in
2007 as president of the Medical Board of Ohio and has been actively
involved in other medical groups, including the American Medical
Association, Montgomery County Medical Society ,
American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and the Ohio Valley
Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons.
Kumar also has served as the chief of surgery and past president of
medical staff at Kettering Medical Center . He is an
associate professor of clinical colon and rectal surgery at Wright
State University and serves on the board of Kettering
Physicians Hospital Alliance.
Kumar recently sat down with the Dayton Business Journal to answer a
few questions, among them the Affordable Care Act.
Q: What is your take on the Affordable Care Act?
A: We looked at the PPACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act)
very extensively when it was proposed and we took an opposite view from
the (American Medical Association).
We looked at all the ramifications of Obamacare and we determined that
the negatives of Obamacare outweigh the positives. We appreciate some
of the positives that are included in that, like some of the
disadvantages that the insurance company used to deny care, like not
paying for preexisting conditions and eliminating payment in the middle
of treatment. Those are positive things.
The negatives in Obamacare totally outweigh the positives, and we
believe that Obamacare as such needs to be opposed, whether you appeal
it and replace it or keep it and fix it. But the final product isn’t
going to look like what it looks like today.
What are some of the problems with Obamacare? What are some of the
other questions addressed?
Read the rest of this article, along with others, at Dayton Business Journal
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