Stephen Fillman: “What is the benefit of having boards in IM or being recertified at the present time? There are none! I have been a board-certified specialist in IM since 1979 and in the eyes of Aetna I am compensated not as a specialist but as a primary care provider at 105% of Medicare rather than the 115% a specialist receives. When did our specialty turn into primary care? We have been outdone by family practice and now we are thought of as equals. We can’t even find young internists to join our group because no one wants to see 25″“28 sick patients a day without adequate compensation. They can go into gastroenterology or cardiology and get rich.”
