Recently NPR http://www.npr.org/ *told this story: “As a young doctor working at a teaching hospital, Sandeep Jauhar was having trouble making ends meet. So, like other academic physicians, he took a job moonlighting at a private practice, the offices of a cardiologist. He noticed that the offices were quick to order expensive tests for their patients — even when they seemed unnecessary.
It was “made very clear from the beginning” that seeing patients alone was not financially rewarding for the business, he says.
“Spending 20-30 minutes with a patient might be reimbursed $80, $90, but sending the patient for a nuclear stress test was much more profitable,” Jauhar tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “A nuclear stress test, at the time when I started working, was reimbursed roughly $800 to $900.”
Jauhar was supervising the tests that had been ordered by a physician — and some physician assistants.
“So even though I wasn’t ordering the tests, I was in the office while these tests were being performed — and I felt really dirty about it,” Jauhar says.
Jauhar’s new memoir, Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician, is about how doctors are growing increasingly discontent with their profession. And they’re facing more pressures: As the number of patients they’re expected to see increases, so does the amount of paperwork. While some doctors who perform a lot of procedures may be paid too much, he writes, many doctors, such as primary care physicians, aren’t paid enough.”
* to read the full NPR story “The Disillusionment of an American Physician” highlight and click on open hyperlink http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/08/19/341632184/cardiologist-speaks-from-the-heart-about-americas-medical-system?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+First+Edition&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13853092&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–pfdBgi-35bQKzGee8vXR0pOw0HJCWJnzRBx-8UdDMuu-uSRfj2xOWr9KS6-ju6rCxHY9t7uLD4fGUhikk8wT3i4hE2wZi3FB5iNWqduL9L5Ao3Xg&_hsmi=13853092
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Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H., is Clinical Professor, Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Adjunct Professor, Baruch College ( C.U.N.Y.), Rutgers School of Public Health, and Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration
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