Lawrenceville doctor a spokesman against health care reform plan

By MARK DAVIS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

David Scott was in a hurry, as congressmen often are. The Atlanta Democrat was hustling to a vote last month when a smiling man fell in step with him. Dr. Todd Williamson wasted no time.

President Barack Obama’s proposed health care reform, the Lawrenceville neurologist said, could prove fatal to doctor-patient relationships. It would rob patients of their physicians’ time and attention. In time, it would ruin the practice of medicine.

Scott slowed. In the echoing confines of the Rabun Building in Washington, he sat down and listened.

Did he become a believer? Ever the politician, Scott wouldn’t say. Yet he did come away from that brief meeting with an impression of the physician in the forefront of a movement to stop HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.

“I’m very, very sympathetic to the doctors,” Scott said. “I found him to be very engaging, very understandable.”

Tireless, too. Since his election last year to the presidency of the Medical Association of Georgia, Williamson, 45, has emerged as the spokesman for a coalition of physicians opposed to the legislation. The nonprofit MAG, an advocacy group with about 6,600 members, came out early against the proposed reforms, but soon enlisted other organizations that share its view.

The physicians’ coalition, which has no formal name, includes medical associations from Delaware to Alabama. It believes the legislation would take away a patient’s right to choose his or her own health-care plan, or select a physician. The coalition also fears the plan would give the government too much control over patient care, taking it away from doctors. It’s also critical of Medicare’s payment formula.

The 43,000-member coalition has broken ranks with the American Medical Association, which recently announced it supports the legislation. It’s a rare show of independence from the AMA, renowned for its hegemony and lobbying clout.

Central to the AMA’s support is a provision that would revamp the Medicare payment formula, which the association calls “broken.” The formula, says the AMA, has short-changed physicians. Especially hard-hit are general practitioners with a large number of Medicare recipients and young doctors with outstanding education loans, the AMA says.

The AMA, with about 250,000 members, is not the only group supporting change. Health Care for America Now, a nonprofit organization lobbying for health care reform, estimates that 400,000 physicians are behind the proposal.

Jackie Schechner, the organization’s national communications director, scoffed at the coalition Williamson represents.

“I think this little fringe group is significantly outnumbered,” she said.

A heartfelt debate

A band of renegades? Williamson prefers to think he and his peers are realists.

“We didn’t part from the AMA,” Williamson said recently at his offices adjacent to Gwinnett Medical Center. “They parted from us.”

Then Williamson grinned, which he does frequently. “We wish they’d change their minds.”

Changing peoples’ minds, say those who know Williamson, is something he does very well.

A Griffin native, Williamson joined the medical association 14 years ago, as soon as he got his medical license. Last year, running unopposed, Williamson became president of 150-year-old organization.

In his inaugural address, Williamson delivered a not-so-subtle message:

“[W]e must return control of health care delivery back into the hands of patients and their doctors,” Williamson said. “We owe it to ourselves, our profession, our families and our patients to fight for the practice of medicine.”

Dr. Cecil Wilson, the AMA’s president-elect, says that the current legislation is not perfect, but it’s a start.

“It’s still being worked on,” said Wilson, of Winter Park, Fla. “What it will look like, finally, has not been decided.”

What about physicians opposed to it? “We’re all free to make our own conclusions,” he said.

Dr. Rick Wherry, a family practitioner in Dahlonega, agrees with Wilson. A member of the MAG’s board of directors, he was the sole physician to vote against its decision to oppose the legislation. He knows Williamson; thinks he’s a good guy, too.

“I just wish we were seeing things a little more eye-to-eye,” said Wherry, a mountain doctor for 31 years.

Williamson is on-point, counters Dan DeLoach, a Savannah plastic surgeon and chairman of the state medical association’s board of directors. “He has a strong devotion to organized medicine,” said DeLoach. “He’s plain-spoken. I think that’s one of the reasons he’s been called to Washington so much.”

Williamson has spoken to lawmakers twice about HR 3200, as well as delivered remarks to the National Press Club — “marvelous opportunities,” he said.

“I think most people would say I picked a very busy year” to be president, said Williamson.

Comics, conviction

Dr. Byron Thompson, an emergency specialist who practices at Henry Medical Center, has known Williamson since they met as freshmen at Emory’s Oxford College. They were roommates at Emory. They even navigated singlehood together: Thompson met his wife, Laura, through Williamson’s wife, Susan.

“He’s one of those people who is very articulate and passionate,” said Thompson. “These are qualities that make him an excellent debater.”

Williamson’s office is a testimony to his varied interests. A round table features the sort of books you’d expect — texts about neurology and other medical pursuits. It shares space with a comic book featuring the Silver Surfer, a loner who travels the cosmos atop a surfboard. The walls of his office feature images of Batman, Catwoman, the Green Goblin and more — comics’ good guys and bad. Williamson drew each with pen and ink.

“I’m always doodling,” he said. “When I’m in a meeting, I am doodling.”

He also has plastic statues of Batman and Iron Man, one in each window flanking his computer. “What do they have in common?” Williamson asked.

What?

“They have no super powers,” Williamson answered. “They are regular guys. They have powers that God gave them to do good deeds.”

Attention to detail

Sometimes, the best deeds are done quietly. Williamson believes in listening to a patient. “That’s old-school problem solving,” he said. “I like that.”

Few people listen as intently as Williamson, said LuAnn Marlow, a Lawrenceville pediatric nurse practitioner.

They were inside a Guatemalan church several years ago as part of a church mission trip. Children yelled, dogs barked and babies cried. In the tumult, she looked at Williamson. He leaned toward a young patient.

“There was Todd, looking in her face, completely focused on her,” said Marlow, who attends The Bridge, the Lawrenceville church where Williamson worships. “He could have been looking at his interpreter, but he was focused on her.”

That focus can be disconcerting. During a recent visit to her home, Williamson noticed some mold on her windowsill — and made sure she knew what sort of mold it was.

“He has such attention to detail,” said Marlow. “You don’t want him to come to your house.”

That attention, say his associates, is what physicians need in their opposition HR 3200. The legislation is immense.

It’s also dangerous, Williamson said. “Patients are losing the ability to privately contract with their doctors,” he said. “That’s wrong. It’s ...”

He paused for a heartbeat.

“It’s un-American.”

So Williamson corners congressmen. He makes speeches. Like Batman and Iron Man, Williamson suits up, and fights.