Leslie,
And I totally agree with you, that folks like you and the others do deserve to be paid much better and easier too. Every time you guys don't get paid is all part of the "game" of paying for healthcare, by good folks like yourself. Again, it's why I really like this Food Stamps model. It keeps you guys on one side of the street as the private provider of services whose skills and training are of high regard and are worthy of being properly paid for, all the while we as a society, if we so choose can still assist legitimate citizens of our nation with aquiring access to your services.
Just because your services are needed by everyone, doesn't mean they should be suddenly devalued. All the more, if your services are so vital to us as a society that we deem it required for all, then obviously you should have a very high level of respect and be well respected. Part of the lack of respect that doctors suffer from is all part of the disinformation campaign that the carriers and the gov't have been advancing for years. And that the provider organizations have been too blind and nieve to combat against. Now your in a deep hole with time running out and trying to run the "2 minute drill" to get back in the game. I remember just a year or two ago there were articles in major journals, basically saying how messed up things are for docs and patients, but no we shouldn't be and we don't need any unions. Blind, simply blind.
I've got a real suggestion to all you providers. I recently wrote Senator Clinton (my rep here in NYS) and Senator Edwards asking if they will come right out and support a physician's right to organize and join a union. And will they support a change in policy and personel at the FTC to over turn their anti-free trade rulings that have put docs into a corner with no leverage to fight back with. I think that each and every one of you needs to send such letters to every candidate of your choice and get this issue on the map once and for all. Otherwise, they are going to try and reform healthcare without your voices at the bargining table and goodness knows what that is going to look like. You'll all be asked to cough up what little is left of your fees to help pay for healthcare....AGAIN. All while leaving many of those same large carriers and their crooked CEO's unscathed.
Are you really going to trust the AMA to represent you on this one??? AAFP??? Name your specialty. They have done such a "wonderful" job so far. Just how did we get here? Who was asleep at the wheel while Rome burned? Just add another patient per day every time the fee schedules go down again, right? Henry Ford has turned up the assembly line so fast it's just insane, and now they want to hit you guys with P4P? Where was anyone's concerns for performance all these years while they ratched up the speed of the line for goodness sake??? P4P is a perfect example of docs being lead to slaughter under that false notion that somebody at these carriers or Medicare actually cares about patient outcome quality. These types of issues are exactly what unions fight for at the bargining table in other industries. How fast, at what rate, under what conditions, measured by who and how. Work place saftey, job conditions, job related stress, time alotted to get your job done and at what rate of compensation.
Me personally I think the Food Stamps model combined with providers being able to organize and unionize is the only viable solution. The old model has been working so well for you guys up until now, now hasn't it? How else will you guys ever have the leverage to fight back against such a strong and ruthless enemy as these large carriers and the Medical Industrial Complex? I can almost see Ike saying it now..... "beware of the Medical Industrial Complex".
Good Night and Good Luck
Paul
