I've got popcorn if anyone wants some.
while people complain about healthcare, you should see what they spend on pets. $4k dog hip surgeries, $300 cat teeth cleaning, etc
Actually it sort of is. It does not take a lot of effort to provide a good transition of care to those who have provided you with a livelihood. Doctoring used to be about altruism. Now doctors talk about it but all I see is "me first". You should have seen the board meeting I was in last night. It was a roomfull of docs acting like kids shouting over with nothing but a me first attitude. I though that a fight would break out like the Taiwan parliament.
He was seeing a new Doctor...that is a new Doctor visit, with a resultant higher E&M code for the visit. You know this. Now....there needs to be more work to go along with that code of course, like reviewing all medical history, making sure age-appropriate screening has been done, and therefore assuming responsibility for managing that new patient.
As posted, when a doc sees you for a new visit, the billing is very different. Lets do this backwards, what do you figure a fair price for a checkup and refill is, out of curiosity? I will give you a heads up that a doctors office overhead runs about a couple hundred an hour plus, not including the greedy doc's salary. Oh, and primary care docs are paid peanuts, compared to a specialist... The average primary care doc sees 2-3 patients per hour under perfect circumstances. Thats $60-$70/per pt to break even on over head. So, how much should a doctor visit be?
also, what do you think a primary physician should make per year, before taxes? keep in mind hes in a 50% tax bracket. $100k per yr? 200? 300? 400? also, he funds his own retirement, pays own healthcare ins, no vacation pay, no sick days, no holiday pay, etc
Oct 1 and we already have a good King Bizarro thread of the month contender, this one will be hard to top.
Freakin' no-good doctors! They won't give me antibiotics for a bad cold and wouldn't refill my Vicodin (knowing I'm allergic to Toradol and all anti-inflammatory drugs which don't work anyway)!*#^!
No thanks, cost's too much. My insurance won't pay for it. Or, in other words the price is too . . . Wait for it. Deer. D Image Unavailable, Please Login
The answer is the concierge model, the low cost/high value model, patients are happy and Doc makes dough (combined with the public's self-responsibility and a national 1 payer catastrophic net); Great story and READ the comments Dr. Josh and Dr. Doug New Trend In Health Insurance: Low-Cost Concierge Medicine | Here & Now http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/your-money/dealing-with-doctors-who-accept-only-cash.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/health/01medical.html?pagewanted=all
Well I had to break down so I have an appointment tomorrow morning. My frustration leading to my original post was just frustration brought on by not having insurance. I can actually feel my elevated B/P in my body and my sleep is being affected. I also must take full responsibility for not taking my medication as prescribed. My last visit was about one year ago when I was prescribed a 90 day prescription so with that being said you can tell I am the only one to blame. Thanks for everyone's input, Gregg
The doctor who took over the practice from my original doctor since the '70s has been great and the visit is only $75 so I guess I should be thankfull. Any way I was taken off Lisinopril which performed great but now I have been prescribed a combo of Clonidine and Amlodipine. My B/P was off the charts yet my family has a history of high B/P and I kind of look at it like a strict dietary regime in that your system can become accustomed and needs change. "Hey look a wabbit!"
Clonidine/Norvasc... odd combo. Not first line meds. The only meds proven to make you live loger are beta-blockers and ace-inhibitors. First line is often those meds or diuretics. Clonidine is a third line choice... Sometimes used if bp is extremely high, and the doc wants a quick response before putting you on something else... This is not meant as medical advice,as I would never offer that over the internet. Your doc knows you best.
Perhaps the latter is for the blood pressure, the former for ADHD? How did Dave post an animated GIF on F-Chat??? Matt
Just has to be a SMALL animated GIF file. The fchat maximum GIF file upload size is 341.8 kb. Most animated GIFs are much, much, much bigger than that. I've tried for years to get Rob Lay to increase the GIF max upload size. He did finally increase the jpg file size recently (to 878.9 kb from approx. 295 kb). No progress yet on GIFs though - he's stuck in the floppy-disk-era regarding image file sizes. . Image Unavailable, Please Login
"Amlodipine (Norvasc (Pfizer) and generics) (as besylate, mesylate or maleate) is a long-acting calcium channel blocker dihydropyridine (DHP) class used as an antihypertensive and in the treatment of angina pectoris. Like other calcium channel blockers, amlodipine acts by relaxing the smooth muscle in the arterial wall, decreasing total peripheral resistance thereby reducing blood pressure; in angina, amlodipine increases blood flow to the heart muscle (although DHP-class calcium channel blockers are more selective for arteries than the muscular tissue of the heart (myocardium), as the cardiac calcium channels are not of the dihydropyridine-type)."
After 12 yrs of grueling study, he charges you $70 to see you is corrupt? Lets do some simple math: If one had a similar practice and charged people $70 a visit, and somehow miraculously saw 6 folks an hour (where realistically 3-4 is likely), at $420/hr billed charges less collection fees, and medical office overhead such as rent, utilities, insurance....) One would LOSE money seeing you. I think if he had any expertise and charged you $250/visit you would be wise to consider yourself lucky. This, plus all the reasons folks mentioned about his legal responsibility to actually examine you before prescribing meds is a no brainer.