Primary Care Medicine Going Extinct?

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

This article saddens me but I think it is accurate. It discusses the demise of primary care in the USA, a natural consequence of policy, reimbursement schemes, and faulty decision-making.

 

[Martha]

Very worrisome. And with all the problems facing the country I don't know how much attention health care is going to get.

 

[Walt34]

Can't blame the docs. All that work (not to mention the expense) to get through med school and then have to put up with all the paperwork BS to do what you want to do.

 

[Bestwifeever]

When I read this this morning I couldn't help thinking about the insurance companies contacting doctors to tell them whether their patients have filled their prescriptions and how much time and record keeping that adds to the doctors' office burden.

It's amazing that anyone wants to go into primary care....

 

[shoe]

Rich, would computerizing all medical records like the Cleveland Clinic has done, make any difference in the amount of paperwork for doctors?

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Rich, would computerizing all medical records like the Cleveland Clinic has done, make any difference in the amount of paperwork for doctors?

Unfortunately not. I've been on an electronic record for years and it helps, but remember when people believed that computers would eliminate paperwork? Well...

 

[Urchina]

Our family practitioner (easily the best doc I've ever had, and I've had the good fortune to have great docs) quit accepting insurance last year. So now we pay her charges in full at time of service. Her office bills our insurance for us (as a courtesy) but she gets full $$ up front. She says she lost a lot of patients as a result of this decision, but that it was a good business decision. Unfortunately, it prices a lot of folks out the excellent care she provides.

She still accepts Medicare patients, even though she says they cost her more than she gets reimbursed. But she likes the life wisdom they pass on.

I suspect that financially savvy FPs and GPs (and internists) may move to a similar model in the next decade and insurers increasingly squeeze care providers.

 

[JPatrick]

Yep, DS graduated from med school last Spring--Very, very few going into FP, or peds for that matter. Those that did were mostly women. Thanks ladies!!
Not trying to make a gender issue of this, just a point of interest.