Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Something off my chest........Health care will never be fixed by Lawyers


I rant and rave about genomics and about hyping of genetic tests but today I have a bigger issue. That issue is plain and simple.


Healthcare is FCUk3D up.



I run a successful personalized medicine practice, just recently we started taking health insurance. The demands from handling billing and copays from insurers AND medicaid has not been that cumbersome. Why? We only see 10 patients per doctor per day.

When you start seeing more than that it creates all sorts of problems.

Like manpower requirements that start to exceed 100-200k per doctor.......

If you have less doctors for more patients, the equation is simple.

Rationing of physician care.

That is what will happen when you cut 400 million dollars of Medicare money.
Oh wait, I mean 500 BILLION dollars......

Do I think that the Lawyer serving in congress will ever solve those problems?
No.
Do I think that the very few doctors in congress will fix this problem?
No.

But trust me, there are way more lawyers than doctors in Congress, so I am extremely doubtful.
No Offense GenomicsLawyer.......


Why?

They are not the people who are experiencing the problems.

Maybe the doctors were, but they aren't now.


The solution will come from doctors/nurses/patients who are involved in the system already...... currently.......

To think otherwise is foolish.
And to drown out the protesters, intimidate them and hide from town halls is also foolish.


Both parties in this argument are dead wrong.

They are having the wrong argument.


The average primary care doctor gets paid about the same as they did 10 years ago. Does that make sense?
Costs go up. Rent Goes up. Medical Supplies cost more. And insurance pays less and less, Including Medicare, who pays routinely 1/2 to 1/3 of what private insurers pay.

As a doctor, Don't like what you get paid? Switch Insurers.
But you won't be able to do that under a universal plan.

As a patient? Don't like what your insurance paid for? Switch insurers. Pretty simple, unless of course you have preexisting conditions.......

The system is a mess, not because of what we pay doctors or hospitals or whoever.

The system is a mess because there are a whole lot of sick people out there......More sick people than healthcare practitioners equals shortage of attention.

Shortage of attention leads to worse care and more labs and more procedures. Shortage of attention leads to increased malpractice costs, risks and fears......
Want to fix the system?

Encourage more doctors to go into primary care, make their liability risks less, create technology so that they can "fire" their overhead this will create increased revenues for doctors without raising pay.


But please, don't ration care because we are too busy and too risk averse to do it on our own.

Enable the professionals to do it by giving them time to think about their patients...... This system will never get fixed by lawyers.......never.

Medicine is a thinking man/woman's game, not a sweatshop.....why ask us to run sweatshops? The American people deserve better than that......

The Sherpa Says: What good is personalized medicine if the doctor can't take the time to personalize it for the patients??? You tell me.

3 comments:

Red Herring said...

Thinking about one's patients - how clever. By Jove, I think he's got it.

Steve Murphy MD said...

@Red,
LOL. I often find this the problem in a busy practice where an Internist sees 25 people a day. One doctor I know gets up at 4 am, works out, sees 25 people in the hospital and then another 30 in the office. When I ask him why he says, "I love seeing people, I love being a doctor. Besides, the only way to get to be a great doctor is by seeing the patients"

I wonder if seeing them is equal to thinking about them......

Probably not.

Andrew said...

Besides, the only way to get to be a great account manager is by seeing the customers