Docs Earn Nearly 400% More For Procedures Than For Cognitive Care

fiercehealthfinance;
Docs Earn Nearly 400% More For Procedures Than For Cognitive Care

One simple procedure can pay more than a day's worth of office visits

August 21, 2013 | By Julie Bird

Medicare reimburses physicians up to five times more for performing common procedures than for cognitive care, allowing specialists to generate more revenue in an hour or two than a primary care physician makes in a day, a new study published online by JAMA Internal Medicine finds.

A physician makes 368 percent more doing a colonoscopy than spending the same amount of time on cognitive care, according to the study abstract. The reimbursement for removing a cataract is 486 percent higher than comparable cognitive care.

The study "illustrates the financial pressures that may contribute to the U.S. healthcare system's emphasis on procedural care," the researchers conclude.

The study also finds fault with Medicare calculations for the amount of time required to perform the outpatient procedures, reports Medscape Today. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assumes a physician spends 30 minutes in a screening colonoscopy, plus another 45 minutes pre- and post-op. The study found the actual time involved totals 23.5 minutes.

The payment gap encourages specialists to favor revenue-generating procedures over cognitive-oriented care, the authors argue, and discourages careers in primary care.

The study notes private insurers tend to mirror Medicare's payment policies, making "the tilt toward procedure-oriented care ... even more pronounced," Medscape Today reports.

For more:
- here's the study abstract
- read the Medscape Today article

Related Articles:
10 ways to eliminate wasteful medical tests and procedures
Pricing for physician procedures based on bloated numbers
Two proposals to end exaggerated time estimates for performing procedures
AMA calls on insurers to provide better cost-estimating tools

Medicare 'resource use' reports worry docs
Thank You Fierce Health Finance and Ms Bird.


Does This explain why Shrinks are so adamant about drugging and shocking consumers both voluntary and involuntary, no matter What the consumer says?

It tells us a Whole lot about their unerring propensity to flat out Lie about the Safety and Efficacy of their Treatments. 

Docs Not Always Honest With Patients

Dateline Feb, 2012
Fierce Healthcare has;
Docs Not Always Honest With Patients
February 9, 2012 | By Alicia Caramenico

Honesty is the best policy, but according to a survey published in the February Health Affairs, that's not necessarily the case in healthcare. In fact, many physicians don't always follow the Charter on Medical Professionalism standards that promote physician honesty and openness with patients.

Of the 1,891 practicing physicians surveyed in 2009, about one-third did not completely agree that they should disclose serious medical errors to patients, and nearly two-fifths did not completely agree that they should reveal their financial ties to drug and device manufacturers, noted a Health Affairs blog post.

Further, more than one-tenth of physicians admitted they told patients something that was untrue within the past year, while more than half said they described a patient's prognosis with more optimism than justified, reported Medscape Today.

Such findings may throw a wrench into the industry's move toward patient-centered care, as they suggest patients may get incomplete and inaccurate information from their physicians.

"Until all physicians take a frank and open approach to communication, it will be very difficult to enact patient-centered care more broadly," wrote lead author Lisa Iezzoni, a physician and professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, the blog post noted.

The lack of honesty and openness with patients should serve as a "welcome wake-up call" to healthcare providers, Linda Emanuel, a medical ethicist from Northwestern University, told Medscape. "We need to do some serious interventions to return to our ethical values," she said.

The survey also revealed that honest communication may be driven by demographics, as women and underrepresented minorities in healthcare are more likely to adhere to the Charter on Medical Professionalism standards.

For more information:
- read the study abstract
- here's the Health Affairs blog post
- read the Medscape article

Related Articles:Get to the heart of patient satisfaction with better communication
What makes a good doctor?
Docs leery of letting patients view notes
Harvard docs punished for conflict of interest violations; ties to pharma


Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Caramenico


"Docs Not Always Honest With Patients"

Really? 

REALLY?

http://psychroaches.blogspot.com/search?q=18C95

You know, much is made about the need for "Informed Consent" in Psychiatry.

Read the Cited Federal Racketeering Statute.

"Informed Consent" with any Drug that the FDA Knows Causes Violent Homicides is impossible.

If the patient were told the Truth about such drugs, the Patient would be Chargeable as a co-conspirator in a Court of Law for agreeing to Ingest the drug.

And "Docs are Not Always Honest With Patients".

We'll say, when they're peddling drugs worth up to 10 years per script, and more, in a Federal Penitentiary.