Father, husband, neurosurgeon, occasional cook
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Eric Potts retweeted
When insurers label proven technologies as “experimental,” it’s not just a policy decision—it’s a barrier to patient care.
Interbody biomechanical devices (CPT 22853) have been a foundational component of spinal fusion for decades—supporting stability, alignment, and successful fusion outcomes.
Yet coverage policies continue to lag behind the evidence.
Spine surgeons are united in a simple principle:
Clinical decisions belong in the hands of patients and their physicians—not dictated by outdated payer policies.
The AANS/CNS Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves (DSPN) stands firmly for:
✔️ Patient access to evidence-based care
✔️ Physician autonomy in clinical decision-making
✔️ Alignment of coverage policy with modern spine surgery
Read the full position statement and join us in advocating for patient and provider choice:
🔗 spinesection.org/position-st…
#DSPN #SpineSurgery #Advocacy #PatientAccess #HealthPolicy #Neurosurgery #PhysicianLeadership @AANSpracticeMgt @AANSNeuro @CNSResidents @CNS_Update @CSRS_org @SRS_org @AAOS1 @ISASSorg @KatieOrrico @DrDiGiorgio @cscla @councilsns @CheeragU
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Eric Potts retweeted
🎥 The best spine talks shouldn’t disappear after the meeting ends!
That’s why the AANS/CNS Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves YouTube Channel is now live!
Inside you’ll find a growing library of expert presentations from prior meetings, giving you the opportunity to learn from leaders in spine surgery—on your schedule.
Whether you're:
🧠 catching up between cases
✈️ learning while traveling
📱 reviewing ideas on the go
You can now watch the talks that shape our field anytime, anywhere.
🔥 And we’re just getting started.
Over the coming weeks we’ll be releasing new presentations from #SpineSummit 2026, bringing some of the best sessions directly to your screen.
👉 Subscribe now - piped.video/@SpineSection
Learn. Revisit. Stay connected.
#SpineSurgery #Neurosurgery #SpineEducation #SpineSummit #MedEd @AANSNeuro @CNSResidents
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Eric Potts retweeted
Imagine you’re an Academic Health System CEO.
Suddenly, doctors start building their own hospitals and they are faster, cheaper, and have better outcomes.
What do you do?
If you answered “improve service,” you’re adorable.
The real answer?
Lobby Congress to ban them.
Which is exactly what happened in 2010.
The ACA prohibited new physician-owned hospitals.
If health systems are so superior,
let doctors compete.
The ban reveals they’re terrified of the answer.
The ban reveals, Congress can be bought.
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Eric Potts retweeted
Don't miss this must-read article in @AANSNeurosurg from our current Chair Dr. Luis M. Tumialán, laying bare the true roots of Section 6001 of the Affordable Care Act, which banned physicians from owning hospitals in the United States.
aansneurosurgeon.org/the-ori…
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Eric Potts retweeted
The @USGAO is saying it now, too!
The death of independent physician practice is driving up healthcare costs!
Want to reverse that trend? Want to supercharge the economy?
Implement site neutral payments. Reform 340B. Eliminate certificate of need. Revoke tax exempt status for large consolidated hospital corporations.
Read the full GAO report below
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Great opportunity for funding spine research and out of this world mentoring!
Joint Spine Section Emerging Investigator Program – Call for Nominations
We are now accepting applications for the Joint Spine Section Emerging Investigator Program, a prestigious two-year national mentoring initiative designed to foster the next generation of neurosurgical spine investigators.
Participants will receive personalized mentorship from senior spine investigators at major conferences, including the American Academy of Neurological Surgery Annual Meeting, the AANS/CNS Joint Spine Section Meeting, and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This structured guidance helps participants become competitive for federal research funding and develop strong clinical trial expertise aligned with their research interests.
Eligibility: Chief residents, fellows, and junior faculty within five years of their initial faculty appointment.
Application Deadline: July 1, 2025
To apply, please submit your CV and research proposal to Brigette Bahmani at b.bahmani@wustl.edu. For any questions or additional information, please contact Brigette at the same email address.
Participant Perspective: Dr. Tej D. Azad
“Spine surgeons can, and should, be surgeon-scientists. The Joint Spine Section Emerging Investigator Program has provided me with mentorship, guidance, and resources to prepare for a career as an independent investigator.”
Since his selection into the Emerging Investigator Program, Dr. Azad has:
- Published a first-author paper in Journal of Clinical Investigation describing a multi-analyte blood test for acute spinal cord injury.
- Been selected as the 2024 Academy Award winner by the American Academy of Neurological Surgery.
- Received the J.A.N.E. award at the 2025 Spine Summit.
- Secured a $140K 21st Century Grant from CSRS to advance research into a blood test for cervical myelopathy.
@NREFORG @AANSNeurosurg @AANSNeuro @CNSResidents
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Eric Potts retweeted
ICYMI: #fixpriorauth in #MedicareAdvantage is back on the table thanks to @RogerMarshallMD @MarkWarner @SuzanDelBene @MikeKellyPA @RepBera and @RepJohnJoyce!
Congress: No need for complex navigation. This one’s a straight shot!
✅ Bipartisan support
✅ Zero cost
✅ 500+ orgs behind it
✅ Real fixes, ready to implement
Read our press release here👉aans.org/advocacy/articles/n…
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Read this one. Worth your time:
You’ve mistaken bureaucracy for benevolence and cartel consolidation for care.
Let’s forget the disaster post by your friend Max. I think we have all had enough of that debacle. Let’s just get your points.
1/ You assert private insurance companies “cost more” and “provide less care.” True enough, but only partially.
You omit that they operate within a system shaped, distorted, and reinforced by public policy: tax exclusion of employer-sponsored insurance, CMS-driven fee schedules, and anti-competitive Certificate of Need laws.
The private market has never truly existed in American healthcare. What we have is a state-sanctioned oligopoly, not capitalism.
2/ You invoke UnitedHealthcare as an example of failure, rightly, but neglect to mention its most powerful allies: nonprofit health systems, especially those like @UCLAHealth .
These institutions:
•Receive 3–5x higher Medicare reimbursements than independent practices,
•Pay no federal, state, or property taxes,
Issue tax-exempt municipal bonds,
•Collect tax-deductible donations,
• Dolinate regional markets like robber barons with clerical collars.
United is the villain and the nonprofit health systems are its bishops.
3/ Your call to abolish private insurance entirely rests on a romanticized faith in Medicare. But Medicare is the engine of price distortion:
•It undervalues primary care while overpaying large systems through facility fees.
•It entrenches administrative overhead via MACs and billing codes.
It also created the very Relative Value Scale, which deforms clinical incentives.
To suggest Medicare for All would resolve these issues is to propose the arsonist as fire chief.
4/ On workforce imbalance: you lament our surplus of specialists and shortage of PCPs. Fair critique. But again, who designed the pipeline? The federal government, comprised of Marxist bureaucrats, subsidizes academic centers to train specialists, funds residency slots through Medicare and allows hospitals to capture GME dollars without accountability.
The solution isn’t central planning of physician labor.
It’s exposing the actual cost, value, and demand for services via transparent pricing, something neither public nor private monopolies permit.
5/ You cite Amdahl’s Law to argue that physician salaries are a rounding error. True. But this only strengthens the counterargument: The problem is not the physicians, it’s the system.
A system that:
•Obscures price
•Rewards consolidation
•Penalizes independence
•And spins regulatory complexity into profit
Until that changes, your dream of government controlled, top-down equity , run by non profit health systems will produce the same result as all prior attempts: a bureaucratized empire of mediocrity.
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Eric Potts retweeted
When someone can’t argue the merits, they attack the messenger.
Posting my salary isn’t a rebuttal. It’s a tantrum.
By that logic, Barack Obama, Ezekiel Emanuel, Atul Gawande, and every think tank exec with a seven-figure W2 should be disqualified from healthcare policy discussions.
The truth is: I take Medicaid. I treat uninsured patients. I work in a public hospital. I see the system’s failures up close every day. I sacrifice a significant amount of income in doing so.
What I’m saying isn’t based on theory or vibes. It’s lived experience, backed by evidence. If that threatens your worldview, maybe it’s your argument that needs work.
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Eric Potts retweeted
𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟖 𝐰𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞.
𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟖, 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐧 𝟖𝟐.𝟏%.
Medicare’s physician payment formula (the Conversion Factor)?
Down 9.9%.
That’s not “fiscal responsibility.”
That’s institutional gaslighting.
𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞, 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬, 𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡.
But the doctors treating Medicare patients?
They’re being asked to do more with less, year after year, because “𝐡𝐞𝐲, 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞”, while the cost of running a practice skyrockets.
If the American people want Congress to preserve access to care for aging Americans, it’s time to speak up and tie Medicare’s payment formula to inflation, just like their own salaries.
𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐨’𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞.
They’re busy trying to survive the 20th century in the 21st.
#HealthcarePolicy #Medicare #PhysicianBurnout #InflationMath #FixTheFormula
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Eric Potts retweeted
The idea that nonprofit hospitals are somehow morally superior because their profits “stay in the hospital” rather than going to individuals misses the point of how incentives actually work in an economy.
First, let’s be clear: nonprofit doesn’t mean non-revenue-maximizing. It just means the excess revenues aren’t distributed to shareholders. But they still seek to maximize revenues, often through the same aggressive billing practices, drug markups, facility fees, and contract manipulation as their for-profit counterparts. That surplus doesn’t disappear. It’s funneled into executive compensation, luxury capital projects, lobbying, and acquiring market share.
So instead of enriching shareholders who took financial risk to fund the hospital, we enrich a C-suite who took no such risk, but have learned to extract just as much value from the system.
In economic terms: the principal-agent problem is alive and well. The board (principal) of a nonprofit hospital relies on executives (agents) to manage operations. But absent the discipline of shareholders and real price signals, the agents optimize for themselves: higher pay, bigger departments, empire-building.
You want a yacht? You don’t need dividends. Just call it a strategic planning retreat in the Caymans.
Moreover, the lack of residual claimants in nonprofits leads to inefficiency. In a for-profit firm, residual claimants (shareholders) are incentivized to monitor costs and improve performance. In a nonprofit, no one owns the upside, so waste and bloat persist.
Yes, for-profits distribute surplus to investors. But in exchange, they face market discipline. Bad hospitals lose money and close. Nonprofits, especially those with tax exemption, face no such pressure. They just raise prices, cry “community benefit,” and pass the cost to insurers and taxpayers.
This is why public choice theory is so relevant here. If we ignore incentives and just assume good intentions because it’s a “nonprofit,” we get the worst of both worlds: market dominance with no accountability.
Finally, don’t be fooled by where the money technically lands. Whether it’s in a shareholder’s pocket or the hospital administrator’s six-figure bonus pool, the rent-seeking is real. One of them just has a better PR department.
So the question isn’t whether profits go to “people” or “institutions.” Institutions don’t use money. People always get the money. The only question is which people, and under what incentives.
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Eric Potts retweeted
The deck is stacked against physician ownership.
Physician-owned hospitals are outright banned under Medicare. They’re excluded from 340B. They lack the tax breaks handed to big hospital systems. The playing field isn’t just uneven. It’s rigged.
And yet, they thrive. These facilities deliver better outcomes, higher patient satisfaction, and happier surgeons.
I had a blast talking to one of the pioneers of physician ownership, @eapotts, on the @NSGYPodcast.
Ever notice how doctors don't *own* hospitals? We work in them, we manage them, we make them possible - but we can't *own* them, here in the USA.
Ever wonder why?
In this conversation with the tremendous @eapotts, we explore some of the story behind the ban on physician-owned hospital, current regulations, and the reality of life, business, and patient-care at a hospital owned and operated by the physicians.
Spoiler: it's pretty great. Patients love it, doctors love it, staff love it, and the outcomes are stellar.
Thank you to returning champion @DrDiGiorgio for insights on policy and politics surrounding physician-owned hospitals.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
open.spotify.com/episode/6AU…
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It was a blast guys! Time to overrun 6001 and give patients access to these great facilities!
Ever notice how doctors don't *own* hospitals? We work in them, we manage them, we make them possible - but we can't *own* them, here in the USA.
Ever wonder why?
In this conversation with the tremendous @eapotts, we explore some of the story behind the ban on physician-owned hospital, current regulations, and the reality of life, business, and patient-care at a hospital owned and operated by the physicians.
Spoiler: it's pretty great. Patients love it, doctors love it, staff love it, and the outcomes are stellar.
Thank you to returning champion @DrDiGiorgio for insights on policy and politics surrounding physician-owned hospitals.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
open.spotify.com/episode/6AU…
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This issue with tax exempt hospitals isn’t unique to UVA. It exists in nearly every large metropolitan ate in the country. Functional oligopolies are crushing independent physicians and practices.
No tyrant ever ruled more cruelly than a nonprofit shielded by law and silence.
The University of Virginia Health System:
Charity in Name, Tyranny in Practice.
There is no greater fraud upon the people than an institution that cloaks itself in the garments of mercy while profiting from the misery of the sick.
The University of Virginia Health System calls itself a “nonprofit.”
But in the quiet ledger books of power, it behaves like any robber baron who ever stalked the countryside.
$7 billion in assets.
Pays no federal taxes.
$41 million in operating surplus.
Pays no state taxes.
Not one bloody dollar paid in taxes.
And especially not property taxes.
And how is this wealth amassed?
Not through healing, but through garnishments.
Through lawsuits against the poor.
Through liens against the homes of the desperate.
36,000 patients dragged into court,
not because they sought luxury,
but because they sought life.
In any just society,
it would be UVA Health in the dock,
defending itself against the charge of cruelty masquerading as compassion.
What greater obscenity exists than this?
A system where a surgery performed in a small clinic costs half as much but Medicare, in its infinite indifference, pays UVA triple!
Where a struggling family physician pays taxes on every dollar earned, while UVA Health hoards billions under the banner of charity.
Where the very laws that should protect freedom, Certificate of Need laws (CON) are twisted into instruments of monopoly, choking out the independent spirit of men and women who dare to compete.
And who in government dares to speak?
Not the Governor.
Not the legislators.
They preach of markets and liberty while genuflecting before the golden calf of institutional power.
In the America I believe in, no man ought be sued into ruin because he fell ill.
No family ought fear the knock at the door from a health system’s lawyers.
No physician ought be taxed and underpaid for having the audacity to stay independent.
And no empire built on suffering should enjoy the sanctuary of nonprofit status.
UVA Health has not merely abandoned the sick, it has turned their sickness into a business model.
Until the people demand a reckoning, the robberies will continue, dressed in the language of compassion, funded by the taxpayers, and cheered by cowards.
“Justice has never been done until the truth is spoken without fear.”
And today, the truth must be spoken plainly:
UVA Health is not a sanctuary.
It is a syndicate.
#Healthcare #IndependentPhysicians #Nonprofit
@UVA
@GovernorVA
@WinsomeSears
@WaysandMeansGOP
@IRSnews
@DOGE_IRS
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Eric Potts retweeted
Preach 🔥
Physician-owned hospitals do a better job.
Why?
Because physicians know how to do the job.
It's our actual job. (Crazy!)
Common sense, right?
I mean, if Gordon Ramsey is going to cook me dinner, I'd like him to do it in his own kitchen, with his own pots and pans, and his own staff.
But if you're of a more "evidence and data" persuasion, we have that too: mercatus.org/research/resear…
There is no inherent moral or ethical conflict to a physician owning a hospital.
The people who suggest that are, in fact, the ones who want to own all the hospitals.
"But what if doctors get GREEDY and do bad medicine to make MONEY MONEY MONEY?!"
First, anyone who goes into medicine to make money is an idiot. Full stop. There are entire professions devoted to making money - medicine is not that.
Second, every human struggles with Greed. Acknowledged.
So, would you rather have:
1. An oath-bond physician struggling with Greed
2. Someone without an oath to care for patients...whose entire training and job is to maximize profits...struggling with Greed?...
Crazy, right?
Repeal 6001. #TakeBackOurHospitals
@DrDiGiorgio @drdanchoi @sdixitmd @SenBillCassidy
𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐎𝐰𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬?
𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐥, 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐥, 𝐓𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞.
Fun fact: felons, hedge funds, and that dude from your high school who sells NFTs can own hospitals.
Doctors?
The ones actually saving your pancreas? Nah, it's too risky.
Meanwhile, insurance companies own hospitals, so what better way to ensure unbiased pricing than letting bill collectors run the care?
America: where logic comes to die.
@WaysandMeansGOP
@GOPHELP
@physicianhosp
@jason
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Eric Potts retweeted
𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐎𝐰𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬?
𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐥, 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐥, 𝐓𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞.
Fun fact: felons, hedge funds, and that dude from your high school who sells NFTs can own hospitals.
Doctors?
The ones actually saving your pancreas? Nah, it's too risky.
Meanwhile, insurance companies own hospitals, so what better way to ensure unbiased pricing than letting bill collectors run the care?
America: where logic comes to die.
@WaysandMeansGOP
@GOPHELP
@physicianhosp
@jason
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