Bad news from the state meeting of the AMA. One of the arguments that our local trial bar has used to fight med mal reform is that the medical liability insurers were flush with cash and that high medmal insurance rates were due to greed and had nothing to do with frivoulous litigation. The insurance companies which are physican owned cooperatives countered that the surplus was do to strongly perfoming investments and that the surplus was needed secondary to the increasing cost of litigation. Well, the bottom has dropped out of the market. As a result, the surplus is projected to be gone. The rate of litigation is also expected to increase. So, guess what? It looks like we are getting an across the board rate increase.
I checked into what I could do to decrease the cost of my medmal. First, I could stop teaching. It seems that educating medical students, interns and residents puts you at higher risk. Oh, big discount if you dont supervise ARNPs or PAs. Stop doing any procedures. Move to purely office based practice and not have to cover an ER. Go to work for the VA fulltime. The last big one was to swith to a different specialty. (or to another career)
I checked into what I could do to decrease the cost of my medmal. First, I could stop teaching. It seems that educating medical students, interns and residents puts you at higher risk. Oh, big discount if you dont supervise ARNPs or PAs. Stop doing any procedures. Move to purely office based practice and not have to cover an ER. Go to work for the VA fulltime. The last big one was to swith to a different specialty. (or to another career)
1 comment:
You said "The last big one was to swith to a different specialty. (or to another career)"
That scares me...the thought of losing good doctors because of these things. Who would teach everyone? I'd be really upset if my doctors quit because of the financial pressures/concerns... or for any reason...although I would understand.
If my urologist group wasn't covering the ED..I might not have them now and they are excellent. Although...they were on my plan and so it is possible that I might have gone over to them. But if someone else on my plan got to me first...then I would not have and I would have missed out on the best care I have ever gotten from any doctor's office... front office and clinic side. (I am ALWAYS recommending them to someone..where ever I go..when appropriate.)
And they would've missed out on a patient that generates a lot of revenue due to the chronic nature of it. (I hope I did/do)On the other hand maybe chronic things are annoying to doctors because they want to FIX it. ?
I was just watching a commercial yesterday about this cancer center that "cares" about the patient and gives them excellent care. The patients in the commercial were stating the cold, bleak way in which their dx/prognosis was given to them and the contrasting wonderful care they were receiving at this center. What particularly got my attention was this man saying that with everything he has been going through, that he is glad to have had these people caring for him. (that's the gist of it) I know exactly how he felt...because I feel the same way too... regarding the group that treats me for the urology issues and if they had not been on call... who knows where I would've ended up? They really do work as a team there and I am grateful for all of them. :)
And what a waste of time, energy spent on getting an education in surgery for a doctor to give it up and stay in an office! Plus... I would think that would be frustrating as heck...to not use your skill.
In Canada..they don't worry about lawsuits. At least that is what I read from one patient blogger. They didn't understand the litigious Americans.
I hope things turn around for the better.
Post a Comment