Hopkins med students: We'll trade lower pay for health reform
Just last week, the American Medical Association loudly objected to lawmakers' proposal to expand Medicare because, it insists, the federal insurance doesn't pay enough as it is.
Not all doctors agree with the AMA. In fact, in this Op-Ed published yesterday in The Sun, a group of Hopkins doctors-in-training say they would gladly accept lower salaries if it would ensure "universal, quality care for our nation."
The six authors take issue with health care's current fee-for-service model, paying physicians for each test, procedure and visit they provide.
That system "rewards specialty care while marginalizing sensible primary care, mental health and preventive medicine" the authors write. Doctors don't get reimbursed for coordinating care for chronic conditions, even though managing such disease is vital for a patient's care, they say. Salaries, which remove such incentives are the way to go, they insist.
We realize the idealism of our goals. We do not expect to donate our services or to work for fees that fail to compensate us for the extensive training we now pursue. We also realize we are asking for nothing less than an overhaul of the health care system. Nonetheless, all of us, whether bound for specialty practice, academic medicine or primary care, are committed to health care reform that places patients first.
Just a bunch of starry-eyed kids, you say? Well, they aren't the first to object to the fee-for-service model.
Others have argued the system only encourages more testing and higher health care costs.
The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog writes about how Massachusetts is experimenting with alternative payment systems.
And this NYT magazine piece points to the fee-for-service model as the root of the problem in health care and profiles a doctor in Salt Lake City, Utah trying to reshape his hospital's system. While Congress may be unlikely to take on this issue in its reform efforts, doctors can do their part to change the system, the story explains.
Comments
I would like to pose this question to any Senator worth their salt (assuming the senator is not a attorney). Why is TORT REFORM not a major component of this bill? Studies performed by www.BenefitsManager.net and www.DentalInsuranceUtah.net that liability insurance costs are approaching nearly one third of the operating expenses for specialty care physicians, units and facilities. Aside from medical provider costs, insurance carriers such as Humana Health Plans state that their costs of medical liability and defensive medicine accounts for nearly 10 cents out of every premium dollar collected (verified). Compare that to Humana’s reported pharmaceutical claims of 15 cents out of every premium dollar collected. Or better yet, 21 cents out of every premium dollar collected is paid back to physicians for physician treatments. Without TORT REFORM, medical provider costs will never drop.
Posted by: Mike | December 16, 2009 11:03 AM
My question to these future doctors is; what dollar range is your expected compensation? ballpark will do.
Posted by: Mac | December 24, 2009 9:48 AM