I saw a recent interview from one of our congressman who was stressing how physicians are overpaid. I couldn't help but look at the Medicaid payscale. This is what the Federal Government pays doctors to take care of you.
To admit you into the hospital and manage a severe pneumonia in a patient with diabetes and CHF an internist gets $74 and then gets $24 each additional day he or she manages your care while you are in the hospital.
When we had a problem with our furnace, the HVAC man got $75 to come to the house, $65/hr after that plus parts and labor.
Oh, the Federal Governement pays attorneys at a rate of $200/hr.
3 comments:
Is that why more physicians turn their patients over to hospitalists?
off track a bit - but when I was admitted under my urologist's care ...a rheumatologist I had seen a few times also checked in on me. I guess since I mentioned his name as a physician I had seen affiliated with that hospital they called him. Otherwise a hospitalist would check in because they look at other than uro? But, I was definitely a *uro* patient and those docs checked in every day. I was so surprised when I saw my ins company had paid him 100.00 for a brief morning visit. If I were a physician ..I'd never give that up to a hospitalist. Don't know if that was because he too was a specialist or what? And I never compared other bills, so don't know if that was a one time thing.
It seems like the government is *trying* to discourage docs. It also seems crazy that the person responsible for helping/saving a *life*, etc., is continually having their salary reduced ...while cost of living/overhead for business, ins, etc goes up exponentially in these financially challenging times.
And yet ...all one has to do is watch the current news to see all the waste and fraud in government.
Off topic from your post.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/02/us-drugs-shortages-idUSBRE8500K220120602
You've written about some shortages in the past and about pharma companies and am curious what your take is on this issue. I read the comments after this article and am wondering ..does it have anything to do with The new health care bill? Or is this something that went under the radar until too late and everything hit the fan?
The following:, "The FDA has been acting under an October executive order from President Barack Obama to fill in the gaps. It has had success getting an early warning from drug companies when they foresee a new shortage, allowing the agency to persuade other manufacturers to increase their production or look overseas to guarantee supply.", seems to indicate he took positive action. Just wondering.
It is at least encouraging that it's not as bad as it was ..at least if the stats are correct.
I just can't believe that in America this could be happening and patient's lives are potentially (probably are) compromised. In this day and age when we have so much knowledge and state-of-the-art medications, etc.
And pharmacists are having to go to manual counting adding more work hours to their day, etc.
And that gas docs are having to use medications they aren't as familiar with - just scary.
I feel sorry for everyone involved with patient care that has to deal with this.... and most of all the patients.
It's just plain crazy.
Blogs are a immense way for dentists to share significant information in the company of public without having to wait for the media or a dental association to ‘tell the story”.
Post a Comment