Vicki,
You are welcome. We all were inexperienced at some time. I just have a real problem with physicians feeling like they cannot stand up for their rights, as business people, as teachers, and as masters of their craft. NEVER assume anything. Always question. Don't let anyone try to pull the wool over your eyes. I know many times I come across as a hard-long-eared equine and, if you push me, that's what you will see. But, early in my solo practice I defined the things I hated about group practice (the ineffectual meetings, the inefficient physicians and office personnel who were sapping the profits and stealing my precious time out of the office, and the demanding patients that have no respect for me or for my profession) and I made it a point to change those. Whereas my previous partners bent over forwards to please the insurance companies, the lawyers and the rude patients, I refuse to do so. I treat my patients with the utmost respect and dignity and will do just about anything for them.....if they show me the same consideration. I will fight even the most miniscule point if I feel my patient's rights are being infringed upon or if I sincerely believe "it just ain't right". Subsequently, over the years I have attracted a practice full of patients I like and who like me. Those that don't go elsewhere and we are both better off (although as Bert and I have discussed previously, it still hurts me when patients leave. I really am a softy at heart).
We physicians got ourselves in this mess and,somehow, we have to get ourselves out. If we refuse to unionize then we have to do it singularly but, en mass. I was one of the first to ditch our regional physican-owned managed care "manager" because they were taking 2% of my collections but doing nothing for me I could not do myself. Once I dropped out, so did many others. I was one fo the first to stop doing Paps on Humana patients at the time of their annual exam because they insist on bundling it. (I make them come back another time for the GYN exam.) Others in my community have now followed suit. The point is, do not be afraid to buck the system when your gut tells you it "just ain't right". You might be surprised how many docs are out there just waiting for someone to make the first move.

Off my soapbox for tonight

Leslie

Leslie
Hospital Employed Physician Who Misses The Old AC

"It's a good thing for a doctor to have prematurely grey hair and itching piles. It makes him appear to know more than he does and gives him an expression of concern which the patient interprets as being on his behalf. "