Obamactopus
It is estimated that by next year, about 50% of U.S. doctors will be working for a hospital or hospital-owned health system…physician productivity falls under these arrangements, sometimes by more than 25%…Often they see fewer patients and perform fewer timely procedures. Continuity of care also declines, since a physician’s responsibilities end when his shift is over.
More from Scott Gottlieb.
This is what happens when you make the system so expensive that doctors can’t keept their own practices open!
It’s a shame that we are headed in this direction.
Judging by all the complications found with hospital care in this country, I don’t know if I want to think of what the health care system is going to look like if these estimates prove truthful.
This is very concerning. Not only patients have it harder every time they decide to visit their physician, but now physicians also have it harder to see patients. This is the result of passing such a flawed reform that promises nothing but a decrease in health access, health quality and a huge increase in costs.
Excellent title. That’s exactly what I think of when ObamaCare comes to mind. Horrible.
Obamactopus is a great name. Keep up the good work Dr. Goodman.
- It’s a long dark road from here. We should be trying to increase Doctor productivity, not drafting bills that decrease it.
Fallacy of Composition. Seriously, has no one in Washington taken a basic logic course?
I can’t seem to understand how a “reform” is supposed to be a positive change into our current system when, because of it, physician productivity decreases instead of the opposite? Access to doctors diminishes, quality of care worsens…hello?
The closing statement pretty much sums up why ObamaCare is such a wrongful legislation that’s going nowhere. Here: “ObamaCare pushes this folly largely based on a naive assumption that models that worked well in one community can be made to work everywhere. President Obama has touted “staff models” like the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota that employ doctors and then succeed in reducing costs by closely managing what they do. When integrated delivery networks succeed, they are rarely led by a hospital. ObamaCare seeks to replicate these institutions nationwide, even though their successes had more to do with local traditions and superior management. That’s hard to engineer through legislation.”
Very naive from the government’s part to want to implement something that worked at a regional level and make it just a good at a national level. What may good for one, may not be good for the other one! Just because this approach worked for these states, certainly doesn’t mean it will work for anyone else…most especially if it means forcing the entire country to do the same thing.
They are getting successful physicians who have made it far to where they own their own practices, and they are being forced now to leave their own businesses to work where the government allows them to work. Very nice.
My primary care doctor has gone the concierge route (pay an annual fee) and has opted out of Medicare. He has also limited the number of patients he will follow so that he is available same day when needed and also by secure email. He says that otherwise, he would be unable to stay in private practice; something he thinks is in the best interest of his patients. I understand and agree.