Atlanta Cheating Scandal
If you have been reading this blog over the years then you would have known that I have compared the No Child Left Behind crusade in teaching to the Pay-for-Performance one going on in medicine. Basically, paying professionals based on the testing results of their students or the chol/BP/glucose results of the their patients can lead to gaming the system. For the former, please check out this article on much cheating was going on in Atlanta. Basically what they were saying to themselves was, “This rating of performance is such a joke we are going to cheat the system in our favor” and they did. For healthcare, expect doctors to the same thing. It is as easy as changing the blood pressures that your medical assistant took or, even better, firing those patients that make your scores look bad. Trust me, it’s coming and that is no April Fool’s Day joke.
I ranted about this before, until people are held financially accountable for their shitty habits, not a damned thing is going to change in this country. Doug had said before, “It’s easy to spend somebody else’s money.”
Craig, I sympathize. How the AAFP was able to gloat as to how they were able to fill all the residency positions is beyond me. All those gullible residents are going to have the rude awakening that they are replaceable by NP’s when they graduate. I know because I have one who is so good that she really doesn’t need me except to sign paperwork and scripts for ritalin. Take away hospital work from FP’s and they are doing nothing more than what an NP can do.
They already can be independent in 17 states.
There a plenty of patients out there that love their NP’s because specifically, they “ARE NOT” doctors. They only tolerate me in that the NP doesn’t do hospital practice.
I am now reimbursed by who got their mammogram,colonoscopy, Hgb A1c test and cholesterol, etc. So as you have said, I’ve had a few patients who won’t do any tests at all. Well, that penalizes me repeatedly for just one patient. And they never come in, so revenue is not zero, it’s actually negative. I have asked 3 patients to find healthcare elsewhere, since I am obviously not providing it. Doug, you are correct. What can you do but fire the patient?