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Primary Care Medicine Going Extinct?
11-18-2008, 08:23 AM
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#1
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 8,827
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Primary Care Medicine Going Extinct?
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.
__________________
Rich
San Francisco Area
ESR'd March 2010. FIRE'd January 2011.
As if you didn't know..If the above message contains medical content, it's NOT intended as advice, and may not be accurate, applicable or sufficient. Don't rely on it for any purpose. Consult your own doctor for all medical advice.
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11-18-2008, 08:25 AM
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#2
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: minnesota
Posts: 13,228
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Very worrisome. And with all the problems facing the country I don't know how much attention health care is going to get.
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No more lawyer stuff, no more political stuff, so no more CYA
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11-18-2008, 09:00 AM
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#3
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Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Eastern WV Panhandle
Posts: 25,340
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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.
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When I was a kid I wanted to be older. This is not what I expected.
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11-18-2008, 09:18 AM
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#4
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 17,774
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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....
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11-18-2008, 09:37 AM
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#5
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 310
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Rich, would computerizing all medical records like the Cleveland Clinic has done, make any difference in the amount of paperwork for doctors?
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11-18-2008, 10:32 AM
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#6
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 8,827
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 Quote:
Originally Posted by shoe
Rich, would computerizing all medical records like the Cleveland Clinic has done, make any difference in the amount of paperwork for doctors?
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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...
__________________
Rich
San Francisco Area
ESR'd March 2010. FIRE'd January 2011.
As if you didn't know..If the above message contains medical content, it's NOT intended as advice, and may not be accurate, applicable or sufficient. Don't rely on it for any purpose. Consult your own doctor for all medical advice.
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11-19-2008, 04:24 PM
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#7
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Central Coast, California
Posts: 923
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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.
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"You'd be surprised at how much it costs to look this cheap." -- Dolly Parton
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11-19-2008, 04:41 PM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,610
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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.
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