Cardiologist Speaks From The Heart About America’s Medical System

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
This blog shares general information about understanding and navigating the health care system. For specific medical advice about your own problems, issues and options talk to your personal physician.

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