Does longer physician training merit more pay?

Physician
September 14, 2011

One of the main considerations in physician pay under CMS’ relative value system is the training required to complete a task. This is generally thought to be well understood but is, in fact. a quagmire of controversy.

Take for example the specialty of family medicine compared with dermatology, anesthesiology, or ophthalmology. Family physicians make between 1/2 and 1/3 of what these other specialties make, so one would think that there …

Read more…

Does longer physician training merit more pay?

Why specialists should join primary care to end the RUC

Policy
August 25, 2011

The old doctors know.  The practice of medicine has changed in a very basic way over the last 20 years.  Physician relationships have lost their civility and have been replaced by a level of tension that takes the fun out of collegial interactions.  I remember my first year of family medicine as the only doctor in Weeping Water, Nebraska.  My personal medical community had gone from an entire medical …

Read more…

Why specialists should join primary care to end the RUC

A new organization for primary care

Policy
June 22, 2011

Recently, the Board of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) announced that, for now, it would continue participating in the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC), the secretive American Medical Association committee that, through a longstanding relationship with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has heavily influenced physician reimbursement.

At nearly the same time, Medicare announced that it will go broke in 2024, a decade sooner …

Read more…

A new organization for primary care

Medicine’s paradigm shift is a microcosm of a trend occurring in society

Policy
May 3, 2011

In 1994 Jeff Bezos revolutionized how consumers shop. He founded Amazon.com.

Shortly after, Ebay followed suit—solidifying a paradigm shift that has redefined shopping from an in-person to online experience. In 2004, Facebook capitalized on another trend: individuals were becoming more comfortable sharing personal information online. Interestingly, people did not wake up one morning and decide it would be convenient to shop from home, or that sharing pictures with their friends online …

Read more…

Medicine’s paradigm shift is a microcosm of a trend occurring in society

A simpler coding system proposal with a focus on primary care

Physician
May 2, 2011

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Barbara Levy, Chairwoman of the Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC), commented on the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) decision to have minimal primary care participation on the RUC, saying the committee is an “expert panel” and not meant to be representative.

Since the committee is made up of 27 specialists, one …

Read more…

A simpler coding system proposal with a focus on primary care

Myths devalue the image of primary care

Physician
April 6, 2011

After an exciting and challenging day of caring for patients and teaching students, a third-year medical student on his family medicine rotation says to me, “I really like what you do, but I just cannot afford to go into family practice.”

I realized that by “afford,” he was referring not only to finances but also to the expectations of his parents, friends, and Read more…

Myths devalue the image of primary care