interesting but inaccurate. Doctor’s billing Medicaid/Medicare = Lawyer billing for insurance defense. Sadly both are a necessary and learned skill. Further, those that are most proficient (collect the most) are rarely the most skilled in their profession.
@ 3:03 pm on December 7, 2009
Wick,
Thanks for posting this. Goodman’s points only begin to cover the issue of MC reimbursement. Medicare is using fee scales to dramatically alter and in many ways permanently break American medicine. Some needs to happen but it is being done so without involving doctors or the voters. CBS is completely wrong. The new fee cuts actually reward the worst doctors…they are the ones that will simply increase their volume without regard to quality to make up for the difference in unit cost. Those of us that have tried to practice with quality and thoughtfulness are now going to out of delivering care within the next two years.
@ 3:29 pm on December 7, 2009
I agree w/ MNS. Good Doctors do what is best for their patients no matter what and ethically should not consider how much or how little the cost of the correct treatment may be. Medicare requires docs to do ‘busy work’ to prove to a non-medical trained person/system to justify that it was needed. Good Doctors are simply doctors and often horrible accounts, attorneys, and office managers. Unfortunately for doctors to make a living and get paid, we have to find a way to wade through a system designed by accountants, politicians, and attorneys. Sure, there are management/billing/collecting companies that will do that, but they cost money and therefore contribute to raising the cost of healthcare. Doc’s are stuck into having an unfair choice of quality or quantity when it comes to developing a practice. A good Doc who devotes quality time to his/her patients will make less money than a doctor who runs a ‘patient mill.’ I have had the same thoughts about compensation that Mr. Goodman touches on. Good Post.
@ 5:10 pm on December 7, 2009
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FrontBurner® launched in March 2003, the first blog in Dallas run by a media organization. This is where the editors of D Magazine come to waste a tremendous amount of time.
3 comments
interesting but inaccurate. Doctor’s billing Medicaid/Medicare = Lawyer billing for insurance defense. Sadly both are a necessary and learned skill. Further, those that are most proficient (collect the most) are rarely the most skilled in their profession.
Wick,
Thanks for posting this. Goodman’s points only begin to cover the issue of MC reimbursement. Medicare is using fee scales to dramatically alter and in many ways permanently break American medicine. Some needs to happen but it is being done so without involving doctors or the voters. CBS is completely wrong. The new fee cuts actually reward the worst doctors…they are the ones that will simply increase their volume without regard to quality to make up for the difference in unit cost. Those of us that have tried to practice with quality and thoughtfulness are now going to out of delivering care within the next two years.
I agree w/ MNS. Good Doctors do what is best for their patients no matter what and ethically should not consider how much or how little the cost of the correct treatment may be. Medicare requires docs to do ‘busy work’ to prove to a non-medical trained person/system to justify that it was needed. Good Doctors are simply doctors and often horrible accounts, attorneys, and office managers. Unfortunately for doctors to make a living and get paid, we have to find a way to wade through a system designed by accountants, politicians, and attorneys. Sure, there are management/billing/collecting companies that will do that, but they cost money and therefore contribute to raising the cost of healthcare. Doc’s are stuck into having an unfair choice of quality or quantity when it comes to developing a practice. A good Doc who devotes quality time to his/her patients will make less money than a doctor who runs a ‘patient mill.’ I have had the same thoughts about compensation that Mr. Goodman touches on. Good Post.