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Pastimes : Techride -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Blue Snowshoe who wrote (6228)	11/14/1999 10:21:00 PM
From: Carolyn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7442

Most doctors are in such a big hurry for one reason, MONEY. Well, Blue, how do expect a doctor to support himself (herself) and his family without money?

To: Blue Snowshoe who wrote (6228)	11/15/1999 12:47:00 AM
From: levy	Respond to of 7442

Blue I think times have changes a lot since you got out and probably explains why you and Joe see this so differently. The fee for service model is getting to be a smaller and smaller part of the package so seeing more patients does not necessarily or directly add up to more money for the doctor...in the HMO model as you know physicians work for a fixed fee and do not get any more for doing any fancy tests on a patient....only more for the total number of "patient lives" as they are called ....if anything the HMO model promotes the opposite effect....that is doctors instead of ordering to many tests might order fewer tests as they are increasingly are having their incomes tied to such expenses.....if they are spending less time with patients it is because the only way to have a reasonable and not outrageous income is by increasing the number of patients lives covered. Also HMO patients tend to seek out more physician visits as the copayment is so low... The short and truth of it is in recent years medicare payments have dropped considerably and HMO payments are tied to these RVU's (reletive value units) so as a result most physicians have seen their incomes drop considerably from what it once was.....while still in most cases a very nice living when you consider the time and expense and all the on call hours I can say now I am unsure I would recommend it to anyone..... I am sure Joe's wife works very hard and relative to what she gets paid I am sure she deserves every penny...this is why I think your comments angered him...