A message to my Congressman

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Tommy

Unfortunately for me, when I tried to check up on my family physician, healthgrades wanted $12.95 to see what they had to say and vitals.com had only one review. In the past I also tried angieslist and found it does not cover my rural community. That, in a nutshell, is the problem with voluntary and customer review based systems.

I understand that doctors who are paid on a fee for service basis need to see as many patients per hour as possible to maximize their incomes, and I have no more concern about doctors wanting to maximize their incomes than I do about mechanics wanting to maximize theirs. I just want them to make it easy for those of us who are picking a doctor to know which of them care even a little for the amount of their customers' time they are wasting in order to afford that second or third condo on the beach.

I had thought both healthgrades and vitals had that info for free, but I went back, and it's only vitals. I would say talk to some locals, neighbors, call the local hospital and ask for the nursing supervisor, she'll know who is good in the area. Lastly, there's trial and error.

The younger doctors don't have multiple vacation homes, unless they were already well to do, as some already are. The older doctors made better money years ago, and may have accumulated significant assets, but not always.

Finally, the medical system cannot be efficient for everybody at the same time, and the way the medical system is going, it's only going to become more inefficient for patients. Reimbursement drives staffing strategies, and with less reimbursement every year, there's going to be less staff on duty at any one time, to do the work, meaning more waiting time. You can't pay staff to stand around and do nothing, whether it's in an ER, radiology dept, doctor's office, etc. That's the direction it's going. Expect to see more PA's (physician assistants) and NP's (nurse practitioners) providing care to you with the doctor somewhat out of the loop unless there is a somewhat serious problem. That's where we are headed. Maybe more foreign doctor's as well.