How Medicare Killed the Family Doctor

Attached a link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704353504575596140752021042.html?mod=googlenews_wsj to an article published in the November 8th issues of the Wall Street Journal entitled " How Medicare Killed the Family Doctor."
The author correctly states that “The primary-care doctor has become a piece-rate worker focused on the volume of patients seen every day. As Medicare and insurers focused on trimming the costs of the most common procedures, the income and job satisfaction of primary-care doctors eroded.”

Furthermore, he points out that a possible solution includes “ making primary-care physicians the captains of the ship. They must have the time and financial resources necessary to take care of their patients, tailoring care to patients' specific conditions and needs. And they need the data to track their patients' results, so they can guide patient progress. They will then be able to slow (and sometimes reverse) their patients' illnesses, keeping them out of hospital emergency rooms and specialists' offices. The end result: reduced costs and improved quality of care.”

But it is of interest to note that he discards “new health-care service models, such as the concierge practice and the Patient-Centered Medical Home, [that] drew doctors away from the standard service models that most patients rely on for coverage.”

He obviously misunderstands the PCMH which essentially will empower the primary care physician.

What do you think?



Yours


Bernd