{"id":49799,"date":"2013-06-25T07:41:14","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T13:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=49799"},"modified":"2013-06-25T07:41:14","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T13:41:14","slug":"doctors-already-make-more-than-enough-money-darleen-click","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=49799","title":{"rendered":"“Doctors Already Make More Than Enough Money” [Darleen Click]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Journalist Margot Sanger-Katz just says Shut-up<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like physicians can\u2019t get a haircut. Doctors recently absorbed a 2 percent pay reduction, their first in a decade, when the sequester kicked in. Industry consultants have seen few major ripple effects. \u201cThere are a lot of scare tactics going on,\u201d says Martin Gaynor, a health economist at Carnegie-Mellon University. Gaynor doesn\u2019t endorse the big, all-at-once hit that would ensue if Congress failed to pass a doc fix, but he doesn\u2019t think the sky would fall if it did. \u201cFor all the gnashing of teeth and the tearing of clothes and the wearing of sackcloth by the medical profession and their advocates, I don\u2019t think things would be nearly as bad as they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which analyzes the program for Congress, suggests eliminating the unpopular pay formula but financing it with steep cuts in the rates paid to specialists and freezing payments to doctors in primary care. In 2011, it recommended cuts totaling 18 percent of current fees to be phased in over three years\u2014and did not predict access problems for seniors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that cutting doctors\u2019 pay would have no effect. Several health economists predict a reshuffling, as some doctors gravitate away from Medicare and others merge with their competitors or local hospitals in an effort to negotiate better commercial payments in compensation. Boomer doctors who are close to retirement might bow out early rather than face a pay cut. All of those changes could prove politically problematic. \u201cThe Medicare population can be activated in protest,\u201d says Erik Johnson, a senior vice president at Avalere Health, a consultancy, who recalls a few recent salient examples.<\/p>\n

Still, the supply of new doctors would likely remain undimmed in an era of lower compensation. Med-school applications are booming, as are applications from foreign-trained physicians to enter U.S. residency programs. Even current doctors, who enjoy high incomes, say their major career satisfaction is patient relationships, not financial rewards, according to a recent survey from the Physicians Foundation. \u201cIt\u2019s an inherently appealing profession,\u201d says Berenson, who adds that lower physician pay might have a \u201csalubrious\u201d affect. \u201cWe would have people who wanted to be in the profession for the right reason.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I look forward to Margot’s column when the Federal Government passes the program to designate and cap the salaries of journalists. After all, there are plenty of people who are willing to write for less than she makes and do it for the [government defined] right reasons<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Journalist Margot Sanger-Katz just says Shut-up It\u2019s not like physicians can\u2019t get a haircut. Doctors recently absorbed a 2 percent pay reduction, their first in a decade, when the sequester kicked in. Industry consultants have seen few major ripple effects. \u201cThere are a lot of scare tactics going on,\u201d says Martin Gaynor, a health economist at Carnegie-Mellon University. Gaynor doesn\u2019t endorse the big, all-at-once hit that would ensue if Congress<\/p>\n

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