These arguments are so petty. There are so many more important things you can put your energy into like trying to fix the current crisis that we as physicians face now, or as medical students will be facing in the future, there is a grim road ahead for all physicians and it certainly does not make a distinction between MD?s & DO?s, PCP?s or specialists. We don?t have the authority we used to, we are told how we can and cannot treat patients by non-physicians, thanks to insurance companies and ?medical necessity clauses? that we allowed to happen because we fell asleep at the wheel. We are getting sued every which way by sweet talking trial lawyers that have convinced this nation that doctors have bottomless pockets, that every baby should be born perfect, and if anything (and I mean anything) goes wrong it?s the doctors fault. Well guess what... we don?t, that cant happen, and no its not. Thanks to these people malpractice is outrageous. Do you know how many private practice ob/gyn?s are in the Bronx right now? On of the most medically undeserved area in the nation. Not one. I?ll say it again. Not one.
And here we sit bickering like children...
Here?s a riddle for all of you. A diabetic goes to a family practice doc, an internist, a nurse practitioner and an endocrinologist. Who gets the most reimbursement? ... they get the same amount.
Well the endocrinologist has done the most training and certainly he can manage a diabetic better than someone straight out of nursing school right? Damn straight. So what?s the point of specializing if we can get the same amount of reimbursement as a nurse? the benefit to the patient, our own lust for learning? Sure, but should not we be rewarded for this? Did you know that every dollar that is paid as an insurance premium, 14 cents actually go to cover health care costs. 16 cents go to advertising. They pay more for friggin? advertisements!! And the rest goes to processing the 3' pile of papers we have to fill out when someone scrapes there knee. Does anyone else find this asinine?
So while we were busy fighting with ourselves, insurance CEO?s, trial lawyers, and non-physician health care workers were busy reaching there hand into our pockets and those of the taxpayers at the cost of patient care*.
Scared, angry? Yeah you should be. It?s your future.
*This is in no way is meant to demonize all trial lawyers or people who work for insurance companies as there are plenty out there with good intentions. I am also certainly not attempting to berate those who have chosen other careers in health care. Especially nurses, because we all love you and absolutely could not function with out you. Im just trying to illustrate a point.
At times I get really upset with these forums because of the constant immature bickering that I see here and the amount of people that seem to take all these posts at face value, to heart, or even worse as words that some ?supreme medical being? has set in stone, and they end up completely missing the big picture. We are all supposed to be professionals, act like it. Nothing is set in stone. If you don?t like it, change it. If it hasn?t been done before, do it. Lastly, for gods sake quit arguing. Sorry but this crap just makes me sick. Every once and awhile you need to stop, take a look at that bigger picture and ask yourself what really matters.
I will be posting this in other threads I am disgusted with.
Thank you for letting me rant, as you can see I was very moved by a health policy lecture I had this afternoon 🙂 which I am almost reiterating. I will now step off my soap box and try to prevent future outbursts such as these from happening. I hope I have not offended anyone, I am only trying to open my future colleague?s eyes to the severity of the problems that face us in the future.
Cowboy
