Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Why health care replaced physician care

Michael Weiss, MD
Policy
January 12, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share

Ever wonder what health care really means and why it’s even used? When you’re sick, do you need health care or a doctor? Maybe as physicians, we need to ask the same about the words “health care provider.”

On April 11, 1993, The New York Times editor William Safire commented on the attempt at the time to label physicians as providers:

As a physician, I am somewhat distressed at being called a health care provider,” writes David A. Worth, M.D., P.A., of Union, N.J., “rather than a doctor, a physician or a professional.” He suspects he knows why the new nomenclature is being adopted: “It is easy to regulate providers but more difficult to regulate doctors, as people have a mental picture of their own doctors’ care. Let us not devalue our physicians by terming them providers. This is just one step away from limiting what they say and depriving them of their ability to make professional decisions.

Fast forward 24 years, and we see that Dr. Worth’s worst fears have become today’s unfortunate realities.

In fact, if you go back 25 years the words “health care” was not in usage except perhaps incidentally in one or two documents. The reason that was that we still had doctors and hospitals and not health care which swallowed up all of medical costs expenditures control and ultimate power. We simply talked about going to the doctor or even having to go to a hospital; once in a while using the term Blue Cross or Medicare.

Once the government, health insurers, and hospitals rapidly began limiting physicians rights and choices as predicted by Dr. Worth to control them, they took over the business of doctoring, and the term “health care” was born.

This meant that the financial benefits and power were transferred from those who actually provided direct care, i.e., the physician, into the hands of these powerful entities.

Physicians were blindsided by the gradual assault of limitless regulations delegating them as mere providers of a runaway health care cartel. So in effect, it’s the government, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and health insurance companies that have skyrocketed medical costs to our current unaffordable and unsustainable level. There’s no question they did so to enrich themselves and not to benefit our nation; any statements to the opposite would require a trove of facts that simply don’t exist.

Yet, the horse and pony show still masquerades by these powerful entities who would have us believe that health care spending can easily be reigned in by regulating the physicians.

Remember, there is no MIPS or MACRA for health insurers, pharmaceuticals or CMS. In fact, when doctoring was in the hands of physicians, health care ( once referred to as medical) costs were minuscule and shadowed in comparison to current day outlandish health expenditures. An example of gradual physician disenfranchisement is how their clinical judgments alone have become worthless and futile.

In fact, it’s only recently that physician’s services are required to be certified, i.e., approved by health insurers. If not certified, the patient is on their own as the powerless physician looks on.

The fact remains that if we don’t know or remember where we’ve come from, we most certainly will never know where we are headed.

Physicians always had their own innate, hands-on developed experience in controlling finances not only in their own offices but also within the entire nation.

ADVERTISEMENT

And it is these formidable entities whose runaway administrative and legislative spending that has bankrupted us. All the while they continue to misinform the public with their battle cry of cost efficiency.

We were the pinnacle of global health care before EHR’s (which still lack interoperability or any concrete evidence of beneficial outcomes) were in use. Since they were implemented and billions of dollars later, our national mortality has started to report an increase in the past few years.

There’s an old expression that if you tell a lie long enough it everyone starts to believe it. Unfortunately, physicians are still too busy providing the medical or real care in health care to expose these fallacies which are now so readily accepted.

It would be more than just an insult to our evolutionary intelligence not to recognize, identify and expose the myth that is draining our nation’s resources, rebounding mortalities and burning out our nation’s physicians.

If we fail to act soon, we might see an unwanted surge in an even newer health care phrase: provider-client.

Michael Weiss is a physician and can be reached on Twitter @HeartAndSoulDoc.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

Prev

#MeToo: "I think I was raped," my patient said

January 12, 2018 Kevin 10
…
Next

Vital signs only tell you so much about a patient

January 12, 2018 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: Public Health & Policy

Post navigation

< Previous Post
#MeToo: "I think I was raped," my patient said
Next Post >
Vital signs only tell you so much about a patient

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Michael Weiss, MD

  • The true cost of being uninsured in America

    Michael Weiss, MD
  • What’s the one thing doctors can learn from corporations?

    Michael Weiss, MD
  • The old days of medicine are gone

    Michael Weiss, MD

Related Posts

  • How social media can help or hurt your health care career

    Health eCareers
  • Health care needs more physician CEOs

    Alexi Nazem, MD
  • Turn physicians into powerful health care influencers

    Kevin Pho, MD
  • Health care is not a service commodity

    Peter Spence, MD, MBA
  • Why the health care industry must prioritize health equity

    George T. Mathew, MD, MBA
  • The health care system will cause its own physician shortage

    Advait Suvarnakar and Aashka Suvarnakar

More in Policy

  • The lab behind the lens: Equity begins with diagnosis

    Michael Misialek, MD
  • Conflicts of interest are eroding trust in U.S. health agencies

    Martha Rosenberg
  • When America sneezes, the world catches a cold: Trump’s freeze on HIV/AIDS funding

    Koketso Masenya
  • A surgeon’s late-night crisis reveals the cost confusion in health care

    Christine Ward, MD
  • The school cafeteria could save American medicine

    Scarlett Saitta
  • Native communities deserve better: the truth about Pine Ridge health care

    Kaitlin E. Kelly
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

      Shashank Madhu and Christian Tallo | Education
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?

      Pamela Adelstein, MD | Physician
    • Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • Residency as rehearsal: the new pediatric hospitalist fellowship requirement scam

      Anonymous | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Diabetes and Alzheimer’s: What your blood sugar might be doing to your brain

      Marc Arginteanu, MD | Conditions
    • How motherhood reshaped my identity as a scientist and teacher

      Kathleen Muldoon, PhD | Conditions
    • Jumpstarting African health care with the beats of innovation

      Princess Benson | Conditions
    • Empowering IBD patients: tools for managing symptoms between doctor visits [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Voices from the inside: 35 years as a nurse in health care

      Virginia DeFranco, RN | Conditions
    • “Think twice, heal once”: Why medical decision-making needs a second opinion from your slower brain (and AI)

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Tech

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 15 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check

      Joshua Baker and James Jackson, PsyD | Conditions
    • The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you

      Jessie Mahoney, MD | Physician
    • How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

      Shashank Madhu and Christian Tallo | Education
    • How scales of justice saved a doctor-patient relationship

      Neil Baum, MD | Physician
    • The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?

      Pamela Adelstein, MD | Physician
    • Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
  • Past 6 Months

    • What’s driving medical students away from primary care?

      ​​Vineeth Amba, MPH, Archita Goyal, and Wayne Altman, MD | Education
    • What happened to real care in health care?

      Christopher H. Foster, PhD, MPA | Policy
    • Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting

      American College of Physicians | Physician
    • A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

      Ankit Jain | Education
    • The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain

      Richard A. Lawhern, PhD | Meds
    • Residency as rehearsal: the new pediatric hospitalist fellowship requirement scam

      Anonymous | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Diabetes and Alzheimer’s: What your blood sugar might be doing to your brain

      Marc Arginteanu, MD | Conditions
    • How motherhood reshaped my identity as a scientist and teacher

      Kathleen Muldoon, PhD | Conditions
    • Jumpstarting African health care with the beats of innovation

      Princess Benson | Conditions
    • Empowering IBD patients: tools for managing symptoms between doctor visits [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Voices from the inside: 35 years as a nurse in health care

      Virginia DeFranco, RN | Conditions
    • “Think twice, heal once”: Why medical decision-making needs a second opinion from your slower brain (and AI)

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Tech

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Why health care replaced physician care
15 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...