Physicians for Patient Protection

Physicians for Patient Protection (PPP) is a advocacy organization physician-led care. The group's founder, Rebekah Bernard is opposed to government involvement in health care and is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
The group's stated membership of 12,000 includes over 10,000 Facebook page fans.
History
Physicians for Patient Protection began in 2016 as a grassroots network of physicians organized on social media. In 2018, the group officially incorporated in Massapequa Park, New York. PPP’s philosophy is that patient health care should exclusively be physician-led. The group was founded by Florida physician and author Rebekah Bernard with the objective of preventing full practice authority for non-physicians.
Bernard is a member of the , helping establish the Florida chapter in 2016 with David McKalip. Her work with the AAPS included being part of the physician review team to critique the language in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Also part of the review team were former AAPS presidents Marilyn Singleton and Kris Held, executive director Jane Orient, and Florida AAPS president David McKalip. She has pushed her viewpoints by frequently contributing opinion pieces to media outlets such as KevinMD, Medical Economics, and the Foundation for Economic Education.
She co-wrote Patients at Risk: The Rise of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant in Health Care with Niran Al-Agba, a pediatrician from Washington State and PPP member. Al-Agba is also columnist for the Kitsap Sun, focusing on health care-related topics.
Opposition to "health care provider" nomenclature
The group is strongly against using the term "health care provider" to describe physicians, claiming it "undermines their profession by devaluing their specialized education and training." PPP member Niran Al-Agba related it to statements made by Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984. She incorrectly translated the word provider to the German language word to connect the term's origins to the Third Reich. The Nazi term was a morphological derivation coined by the SS and taken from the verb which means “to treat.” It was a pejorative meant to devalue Jewish physicians beginning in 1938 with the terms or "treater of the sick" and or "treater of teeth."
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons highlighted Al-Agba’s original post in their June 2019 news brief detailing their amicus brief related to the and the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate clause.
Legislative advocacy
Texas House Bill 1792 and 927
In January 2019, Republican Representative James White introduced House Bill 927 to improve rural access to health care by expanding the scope of practice for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). Physicians for Patient Protection aligned with the Texas Medical Association to publicly oppose the bill. The groups were successful in preventing the bill from going beyond their respective legislative subcommittees.
California Assembly Bill 890
In February 2019, Democratic Assemblymember Jim Wood introduced California Assembly Bill 890 to allow nationally certified nurse practitioners (NPs) to practice to the full scope of their license without physician oversight. Physicians for Patient protection spoke out against the bill. In September 2020, Governor Newsom signed the bill into law making California the 29th state permitting full scope of practice for nurse practitioners. Bernard, along with Washington State pediatrician and PPP member, Niran Al-Agba publicly opposed the bill.

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