It Is Not Only Older Physicians Who Are Discontent: Part 1
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
It has been said that the older physicians are the only physicians upset by the way they are being treated by the healthcare insurance industry. The claim is older physicians are spoiled by the golden days of medicine. My reply to that statement is nonsense. When a professional is treated as a commodity no matter what his age discontent is generated. The older physicians are products of the silent generation. When the younger physicians are pushed to the edge we will hear lots of noise and have lots of rebellion. The rumblings have started.
Uwe Reihardt said it all to my surprise in a letter to the editor of the New York Times in May 2008.
“Any college graduate bright enough to get into medical school surely would be able to get a high-paying job on Wall Street. The obverse is not necessarily true. Against that benchmark, every American doctor can be said to be sorely underpaid.
Besides, cutting doctors’ take-home pay would not really solve the American cost crisis. The total amount Americans pay their physicians collectively represents only about 20 percent of total national health spending. Of this total, close to half is absorbed by the physicians’ practice expenses, including malpractice premiums, but excluding the amortization of college and medical-school debt.
This makes the physicians’ collective take-home pay only about 10 percent of total national health spending. If we somehow managed to cut that take-home pay by, say, 20 percent, we would reduce total national health spending by only 2 percent, in return for a wholly demoralized medical profession to which we so often look to save our lives. It strikes me as a poor strategy.
Physicians are the central decision makers in health care. A superior strategy might be to pay them very well for helping us reduce unwarranted health spending elsewhere.”
Many examples of discontent from younger physicians can be sited. As these physicians gain experience and understand that the healthcare system is a business to the facilitator stakeholders whose only concern is the bottom line the patient-physician rebellion will pick up steam. The facilitator stakeholders account for 80% of the healthcare dollar and add little value.
“A doctor in his late 30s, he has been in practice for six years, mostly as a solo practitioner. But he told me he recently had decided to go into partnership with another cardiologist; “Your days aren’t busy enough already?” I asked.
The waiting room was packed. He had a full schedule of appointments, and after he was done with his office patients, he was going to round at two hospitals.
He smiled wanly. “Just look at my eyes.” They were bloodshot.“This whole week I haven’t slept more than about six hours a night.”I asked when his work usually got done. “It is never done,” he replied, shaking his head. “See this pile?” “He pointed to five large manila packages on a shelf above his desk.” “These are reports I still have to finish.”
“As a physician, I could empathize. I too often feel overwhelmed with paperwork. But my friend’s discontent seemed to run much deeper than that. Unfortunately, he is not alone. I have been hearing physician colleagues voice a level of dissatisfaction with medical practice that is alarming.”
The discontent is building. Physicians are fed up with what they perceived as a loss of professional autonomy. They can not stand the unwarranted restrictions on their medical judgment. As demand for physician services increase we are experiencing larger and larger physician shortages.
Another physician complained. “I’d write a prescription,” he told me, “and then insurance companies would put restrictions on almost every medication. I’d get a call: ‘Drug not covered. Write a different prescription or get preauthorization.’ If I ordered an M.R.I., I’d have to explain to a clerk why I wanted to do the test. I felt handcuffed. It was a big, big headache.” Managed care is like a magnet attached to you.
A 42 year old physician complains that he continues to be frustrated by payment denials. “Thirty percent of my hospital admissions are being denied. There’s a 45-day limit on the appeal. You don’t bill in time, you lose everything. You’re discussing this with a managed-care rep on the phone and you think: ‘You’re sitting there, I’m sitting here. How do you know anything about this patient?’ ”
The endless abuse on professional integrity amazes me. A high school graduate sits in front of a computer screen deciding on what a physician can or can not do. Another healthcare insurance company assistant sits in front of a computer billing screen reducing reimbursement on questionable computer programming decisions. The appeals process is difficult and time consuming for physicians.
“Dr. Mark Linzer, an internist at the University of Wisconsin who has done extensive research on physician unhappiness, told me. “Fortunately, the data show that physicians are willing to put up with a lot before giving up.””
How long do you think young intelligent physicians will tolerate this abuse? How long do you think it will take to train another compliant work force? America has a physician shortage that is about to accelerate.
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.