Access to the Healthcare Dollar by Ted Bacharach MD (retired)

Every encounter with a physician suggests that doctors are not the recipients of any government largess. Monthly changes and increased requirements for documentation have placed the physician in a position where he or she must spend more time filling out forms and documentation, leaving little time for the consideration of the poor patient who is rewarded by all of this with decreased attention. The primary care physician is given the least amount of reembursement and has to cut the amount of time he spends with each patient if he is to make a living. The specialists, who the patients are sent to, have limited horizons and the poor patient with more than one illness may get conflicting treatments by more than one specialist.

In contrast to the above consider the medical suppliers and the pharmaceutical companies. The use of used equipment is not allowed. Used wheelchairs even though thay have low mileage cannot be used. This is true of all medical equipment and certainly does little to lower the cost of medical care.  I recently saw an ad on television advertising three books on diabetic diets that care covered by Medicare and would not require any payment.

I think that a revision of many of the methods and procedures that Medicare and the insurance companies use in distributing their money deserve a little more consideration and perhaps a little imput from the physicians who are the real individuals who direct medical care and treat patients.