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Drop docs' fees and watch costs go down Date published: 9/23/2009
Drop docs' fees and watch costs go down
I strongly agree with the opinions of Dr. Donald Bley ["Public option: Can a righteous nation do less?"] and Dr. Wayland Marks ["Insurance reform alone won't cure sick system"] presented in their Sept. 9 letters. Today I must pass on some information about how out of control medical specialists' fees have become. The primary care doctors we visit several times a year provide services to keep us healthy. The specialist, whom we may see a few times in our lifetime, can make more money seeing us once than our family doctor makes for a whole year. Let me explain the business model of the largest radiology practice in our area. Recently, I read that there are 22 partners in the group. Each one will earn more than $400,000 this year, and some more than $500,000. I don't know of any small business that sells a product or service that could afford to pay 22 executives or managers $400,000 per year! UMW is a large school with about 150 Ph.D.s. on This business model is not possible except in medicine. We wonder why health care costs are so high! The icing on the cake is the technical fee associated with your X-ray, MRI, or CT scan. The radiologist is paid a third of the procedure's cost for interpreting the film. Two thirds of the fee goes to the company that owns the equipment. So the radiologist receives $500 for an MRI that costs $1,500. Reading the film and dictating the report into a machine takes about 15 minutes. The annual cost for this group of doctors' salaries is $10 million to $11 million per year, and the total cost for patients and their insurance companies is about $35,000 for radiology services that do not cure any diseases. How did these fees become so outrageous? We need a 50 percent reduction in radiology, cardiology, anesthesiology, and surgeons' fees now, along with making all private insurance companies not-for-profit institutions, as they are in almost all other countries. Robert Walter Fredericksburg
treatment right now! And, everyone has the same opportunity to get insurance, education, etc., in this country. No need to argue - my dad has a 7th grade education but died a millionaire who had his own business - he worked for it! I came from that family and earned my way to a doctorate - don't tell me it isn't possible. Don't penalize the successful! Once health care is controlled, Obama will move on to something else - Control, people, that's what he wants.
Thanks for reinforcing my point. You have no idea how to analyze a complex problem. "Move to Russia if you think MRIs should be more affordable" is an intellectually small & morally bankrupt answer. Of course they're expensive machines, but each layer of the U.S. medical beaurocracy treats them like ATMs. Other countries (whose pops. are far healthier) provide affordable MRIs, etc. Actually, YOU would be happier in Russia, since they're the ones with lawless capitalism and even worse corp. corruption.
You hit the nail on the head. Greedy doctors that run local medical monopolies are the problem. Nothing will change until we get doctor pay under control.
Do you have any idea what you're talking about or how much
that equipment costs to purchase and maintain? No, you
don't. I agree with blitzburgh. You want utopia, move to
Russia. I don't think they even have MRI's there.
...where they have gotten rid of the fee-for-service type of healthcare. Result -- the best medical care in the US and at a lower cost. Gist from a WashPost article by David Ignatius: The Cleveland Clinic approach -- not for profit, based on group practice, led by doctors who are salaried rather than "fee for service," and subject to rigorous annual professional review. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090402970.html. Sounds like a good proposal as rightone suggests
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