And There Were Only Two Docs Left
The Daily News did a nice piece about the last two family doctors left in one large section ( a whole zip code) of the Bronx region. To summarize, we have less and less family docs left and Obamacare did NOTHING to fix this. And so the story goes on and on and with millions of people now getting insurance in the next 11 months, it will only get worse. And please, please don’t tell me the answer is the increase the amount of LELTs. That is just disrespectful to me and my profession and you are on the wrong website.
All that is needed is to change the fee structure, so it is the same for any doc who can provide the service, in whatever facility is sufficient. No more specialist/hospital premiums for work that could be done just as well in primary care. And maybe an extra facility fee for systems (eg small practices) that ensure patients get continuity of care.
Fundamentally it is all about the money, and how it is organised. Until that is corrected, primary care has no hope.
“LELT” ??
LELT Loon Echo Land Trust (Bridgton, ME)
LELT Leading Engineering Laboratory Technician
LELT Law Enforcement Language Training (est. 1990; California)
Less Educated
Less Trained
By LELT I hope you don’t mean PAs. If you do, shame on you.
How about starting clinics with 2 PAs and a family doc who could give really good care there. You won’t get solo practices opening, so it would have to be subsidized. That’s how Federal money could work. If you build the practice you all get to own it.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m a LELT. And even if we could own it together the hospital will be buying it up anyway.
Trust me, that’s how you get healthcare to those who need it.”Dave
Collaboration. Not competition. The PAs are better about this.
I don’t understand the push to expand Medicaid as the answer to expand access. I am a solo doc and medicaid reimbursements doesn’t cover overhead or operational expenses. I don’t participate. How many docs do? So do we underwrite health access?
Doug, in the past this blog has included comments from several supporters of the Affordable Care Act. I would really like to hear from them here, or even in a guest column, explaining how this situation could be fixed.
“LELT” ???
what is a “LELT” ???
Less Education
Less Training