Healthcare Town Hall

Having worked in healthcare marketing for years I see two major problems:

1. Huge malpractice awards that drive up the cost of malpractice insurance, that drives up the cost of doing business in healthcare, that drives up the cost of receiving health care, that drives up the cost of health care insurance. (Why would any young person want to be a physician?) Cap the awards federally and force down the malp insurnance rates (they wouldn’t be justified with caps in place).

2. Selfreferrals to medical imaging. Studies show that when a provider gets their own imaging equipment (i.e., an oncologist getting a CT scanner), they order 70% more CTs! Some do it for increase revenue while others do it out of desperation to cover increasing overhead. It is not legal in some states and it should not be. Who owns imaging equipment should be closely regulated. Outpatient imaging centers run by radiologists and hospitals are plentiful in the U.S. There are few places that physicians need their own equipment. A few exceptions are obvious such as Ortho groups and Xray machines, etc. OB/GYNs do not need 4 full time ultraounds in operation so patients can see pretty 4D pictures of their fetus. We all survived for a few years without this luxury.

I’m a doctor,and I have this to say;I had to dismiss all my Medicare patients,cause they were too expensive to keep,and could never pay for the treatment thru Medicare.There is no way I could afford to take these referrals from “health insurance co-ops”or whatever they are.We medical people,a ton of us,have already poured over this health care reform bill,and we just will not,and cannot do it.The doctors who are middle-age,are going to retire,and get out of it completely,to avoid this.The rest of them are getting jobs in hospitals,and getting out of private practice completely.A bunch of them are going to Australia,and NZ.

I have training and skills in other areas,careers,and I might just junk the medical world,and go into another career completely.I would hate to do that,cause I love taking care of people,and being a doctor.But I’ll be darned,if I am going to be forced into a huge,maniacal,insane govt. health care system,that ends up like Canada’s.(I get patients from Canada.)In Canada,if you need to go to the doctor,you take any cash you have,and go to private doctors and private clinics,cause the system of the govt.’s is non-exsistent.Or,you go over the border,to a country which still has doctors and medical services you can pay for.Being a doctor in the US,is tough enough,and a huge govt. system would make it unworkable.I would not be able to afford to stay in medical practice.I would have to leave it. And I really do not want to do that.

@Dr.Namesake
Don’t let the door hit you on your way out to Australia or New Zealand. Those governments have their hands in their health care systems way more than the U.S. likely ever will. You don’t like goverment-run health care in the U.S., but you and your doc pals are gonna move to where the government pretty much runs the show. Hope your medical practice is better than your logic.

I only got half the way though “Dr” Namesak’s post and knew that there was no way he was a doctor. I’ve been in healthcare for over 25 years and yes, this healthcare bill is a nightmare, but you are right, txwordpound, other countries have it worse. Wish all those freedom loving tea partiers and conservatives good luck next week and we’ll see what we actually end up with come 2014.

When it comes to medicine and health care as well as most everything else, I do not want the least bad. I want the best. Not being as bad as some other nations is hardly a good recommendation.