Playing a name game with HCFA

If HCFA gets a new name, doctors say it better come with more than just reprinted letterhead and a freshly painted sign hanging outside.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. June 11, 2001.

What's in a name? Not enough, according to physicians reacting to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson's proposal to rename the embattled Health Care Financing Administration.

"I'm not sure dressing up the pig makes it look like something other than a pig," said Medical Society of the District of Columbia President Stuart Seides, MD.

"A rose by any other name smells just the same," added Connecticut family physician Neil Brooks, MD, past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Earlier this spring, Thompson floated the idea of changing HCFA's name to something that's a bit more friendly. He suggested MAMA, short for Medicare and Medicaid Administration. Others have suggested National Healthcare Administration, NHA, as a shorter, more descriptive name.

But, doctors say, changing the name won't mean much if physicians are butting into the same bureaucratic problems they face now when they deal with the agency -- whatever it might be called.

"We welcome a name change if it means there is going to be a new attitude of cooperation," Medical Society of Delaware President Edward F. Quinn III, MD, said. "We want to see substance to this."

Mention HCFA to most physicians and they conjure up the image of a vast bureaucracy that issues a lot of complex regulations but doesn't dole out the money to help doctors understand or implement them.

Many physicians also see HCFA as antagonistic and out to get them for making mistakes, even if they are honest ones. [...]