Doctor Wait Times Soar 30%
Patients are waiting an average of 24 days to schedule an appointment with a doctor in 15 major U.S. cities. That’s ridiculous. They say this is due to a shortage of physicians but is it really? If the doctor is spending half of his or her time on bogus metrics, ridiculous EMR work and documentation then shouldn’t we try to eliminate this first? Instead we let this happen:
Insurers are pushing more of a team-based approach to healthcare to keep a lid on healthcare costs as the population ages, with the federal government shifting more Medicare dollars away from fee-for-service payment to value-based care models.
Teams don’t fix the problem. They just add overhead. And why would we ever let the insurers tell us to do anything?
There is no mention of number of patients treated either. Anecdotal reports from actual practicing providers and some studies show decreased patient flow of 30%. With all the political hoopla about replacing ObamaCare, it is very disappointing that our “representative” physician groups have said nothing about practice inefficiencies brought about by the law and CMS regs. The IT, insurance companies and large healthcare corps cite improved health, safety and efficiency but have little objective data to support their claims. How did we get into this mess ??
I agree wholeheartedly.
The whole system has to be revamped.
Just decided to do concierge practice. Hopefully be able to get away from most of the inane stupid data collection
Congrats. Break on through to the other side, as Jim Morrison said.