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All messages are published
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The general topic of this message is Health:
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Subject:
Name the Public Option for Kennedy
To:
President Barack Obama
Sen. Frank Lautenberg
Sen. Robert Menendez
Rep. Frank LoBiondo
September 10, 2009
Dear Mr President, I am an Internist who takes care of patients with very complex time consuming problems . Over the past years I've seen my reimbursement go down as my overhead goes up. I have refused to increase my patient load since that would mean spending less time with each patient and thus providing poor care.My day is bogged down with unnecessary forms and paper work which also takes time away from patient care and increases my overhead.I work all day, am on call all night and weekends and I am paid less than Joe The Plumber.I love what I do and am privileged to be part of the lives of my patients but I can't afford to stay in practice and like many other Primary Care Providers I am fearful that I may not be able to continue to care for my patients.I have 6 children whom I would love to encourage to become physicians but am afraid that after twelve years of higher education and massive costs they will not be able to support a family.I have great faith in your judgement Mr President . i think a public option makes sense but we must be clear that providing insurance to all does not mean quality healthcare for all. Any plan must include resources to allow physicians to spend more quality time with patients . If i was paid at the level I was 15 years ago I would be able to expand, hire new physicians , dietitians,diabetic educators etc and provide better care for my local community but instead Insurance Companies along with Medicare continue to increase regulation ,decrease reimbursement and make it harder and harder for private rural local community physicians to practice. Sure I could move to the city and join a complex mayo clinic type program but then I would be abandoning care in an area where it is needed the most ! ACO's make tremendous sense but these are just another name for the Group Practices that physicians wanted to participate in over 15 years ago but were forced out because of The Stark Laws that are still in effect today. I also believe tort reform is important as well. There is without a doubt bad physicians practicing medicine and those who are guilty of negligence should be prosecuted , but the vast majority of medical legal lawsuits are frivolous and take away vast resources,time and money not to mention cause psychologic injury to well meaning caring professionals. There should be arbitration panels made up of physicians ,legal and scientific experts who review claims of malpractice and only allow those cases worthy of true malpractice concerns be allowed to proceed through to the justice system. This would save a tremendous amount of time, resources and money!
I know that a physician complaining about making money is hard to sell to the public but you must realize that the basic problem with our healthcare system is that a secondary economy specifically Insurance companies and big Pharmacy have taken billions of dollars away from the primary providers of healthcare .Is there fraud ?,You bet there is; Is there bad doctors? Yes there are just like there are bad lawyers and politicians. But the vast majority of physicians spent half of their lives and families money and resources studying and preparing to do good for the wold and for the patients they care for . The majority of physicians will do the best thing for the patient if given the opportunity and resources. You must realize that decreasing reimbursement and increasing overhead , regulations and paperwork forces physicians in our present system to see more patients in less time to make ends meet. This leads to unnecessary tests since spending less time with the patient in taking a history or completing an exam leads to relying more on expensive tests for confirmation or ruling out a diagnosis. Doctors then become detached from their patients and no longer know the intricacies of their histories,stories and care needs. This is not something that can be replaced by a computer but rather from time spent with the patient. i believe as you do that quality care should be rewarded and that best practice guidelines should be met but with the present reimbursement system those guidelines may be difficult to meet for many physicians especially if you add 25 million more patients into the mix without increasing resources available to private practices which make up the workforce of healthcare around the country. I love what I do ! I love taking care of my patients but, I ,like the majority of my professional community, am tired and worn out from fighting day in and day out to survive a system where the only real advocate for the patient is the physician who is limited by what he or she is able to do. My decision to become a PCP was made after meeting with my friends father ,who was a GP. I sat in is office and watched in awe as he pointed to the hundreds of patients pictures on the wall each one touched by his care ,each with a life story all of which he knew in great detail. This is what is missing in our discussion.... Thank you
cape may court house , NJ
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