Most outside people and specialist have little idea of what primary care docs do. It also varies depending on the practice, the community and the insurance mix.
Gatekeeper. You keep hearing that statement over and over, but ouside of HMOs, you do not have to act as gatekeeper, but probably should. That then depends on how the patients perceive you as well. there is no real reimbursement for gatekeeping so it must not be important, ha ha.
I am on the other end of the spectrum in Pediatrics. We actually do a lot of preventive medicine, counselling and then there are the multiply challenged kids who require a lot of specialized care.
Med refills, reconciliation, referrals, coordination of multiple specialists, translating information from the specialists. Taking care of the routine medical problems and providing preventive care. Often assisting in getting benefits, completing tons of paper work, explaining insurance choices and coordinating insurances, all of these fall into primary care.
Of course after hours phone calls are not important as they are usually not reimbursed. Most insurance companies require that you have 25 hour availability although they do not reciprocate.
Of course our reimbursement rate have always been procedure based, so primary care docs, especially pediatricians, have lower rates of reimbursement. It would be a lot easier to do 2 hernia surgerys a day than the complete coverage in the office. But then, we have more fun.
