Don’t blame docs too much for this, it’s all insurance’s fault. 99% of docs I know or worked with have all said how they wish they could see patients for longer. Some want at least an hour minimum with a single patient
This. But also add medical facilities like hospitals, medical equipment manufacturers, and drug companies.
A lot of times people equate the entire charge they receive with the physician fee. But only a portion of that is actually for the physician. In a hospital stay you’ll often get a separate much smaller bill that’s actually for the physician, the main bill has nothing to do with them and is entirely from the facility and other costs.
To give some perspective, for a brand new patient outpatient visit for a very complex and likely multiple medical issues involving multiple medications, some of which are high risk, likely an hour long visit minimum if not more. Highest the physician can bill is about the equivalent of 200 bucks (like 6 rvus). More typical visits would be closer to like 60 dollars. Rest of the fee is the facility or games the hospital is playing to get your insurance company to cough up. What the physician themselves can actually bill is quite strictly regulated, and even that portion rarely goes directly to the physician nowadays (physicians are mostly employees now who don’t get the fees directly, their employer does). Their fee makes up more of the charge in a outpatient visit, but for a hospital stay the physician fees are usually a single digit percentage of the total cost. These issues are also why you see concierge medical clinics opening up where they just take cash, because the actual amount physicians themselves can bill isn’t that big. Oh and the fee is supposed to cover not just the appointment, but all the time they take documenting a visit note (which is gonna take a while for a complex one hour visit), all the prepatory work for the visit, communicating with other health care providers or pharmacies etc, and any follow up care or questions.
Not to mention the pressures from above with employers forcing doctors to see more and more patients in a shorter time. Anyways, point is, doctor isn’t to blame here. We need socialized medicine or something like it badly.
This is actually the correct answer. The people on the ground from the physicians to nurses, janitorial and ancillary staff… The good ones will give you the best care they can.
It’s horrible to be handcuffed every day by a healthcare system when you take an oath to First, do no harm
I kinda understand why communication for other healthcare providers is needed(med history), but what pharmacies have to do with all of this?
I was just listing that there are many other things that are expected to be included in the relatively small physician fee (usually about $60 in the end for a typical visit). When I referred to the communicating with pharmacies part to give you more detail, I mean writing all the orders for lab tests and medications, communication with the pharmacy about any issues that arise. Many medications aren’t very straightforward to send to the pharmacy. They can involve additional paperwork from the insurance company or the drug manufacturer first that a doctor needs to fill out first. A lot of newer drugs must be routed through particular specialty pharmacies and they have their own special procedures that must be followed. Some drugs have programs with the company the doctor has to be enrolled in/compelte to certify education in their drug, some have their own special consents. Another reason many physicians don’t work on their own anymore is just obtaining medications for patients has become its own herculean task, so many medical departments now have a medication access team of full time employees that just specialize in getting medications started for patients and making sure all these different things are taken care of.
But the point of it all really is, in many cases there’s just as much work behind the scenes for the doctor, if not more so, than the actual time spent during the appointment, all also expected to be covered by a relatively small fee. And all of that starts compounding even worse the shorter the appointments are as that background work from even more patients builds up, and that’s yet another pressure squeezing in on time with patients.
Wow. Thanks.
Then break the rules. If there’s a legal issue, no jury should convict them for saving lives.
This is the current state of American healthcare.
Canadian conservatives have been taking notes for years, and have begun the privatization of our single-payer healthcare, with Ontario and Alberta leading the charge.
I fully expect this dystopian nightmare to hit our country within the next decade if the Federal government doesn’t take healthcare out of the province’s hands and make it a public utility or crown corporation that legally cannot be sold off or dismantled.
And they’re paying the private clinics more than they pay hospitals for the same surgery. And then the assholes will leave office and sit on the boards of these private clinics
I currently owe $500 to a surgeon who saw me for 10 minutes to tell me he couldn’t help me because we forgot to check if he was in-network and he wasn’t.
Charge the doctor a $10,000 bullshit-charge charge, which is what you charge when you’re given a bullshit charge. The beauty is that the bullshit-charge charge cannot be countered by another of itself. At least not in these circumstances.
You’d think the doctor could counter with a bullshit-charge-charge charge, but that would both be a clear admission that the initial charge is bullshit, and further, invites another bullshit-charge charge, because a bullshit-charge-charge charge is also clearly bullshit.
This is a joke I’m too Canadian to understand.
… yet
Yup where it’s going is “the doctor will see you in six weeks but for $300 he can see you now”.
Could someone make this more relatable for Europeans with “you can leave now” in the last panel?
Slightly more relatable lol.
That hurt.
It’s difficult to find a doctor that takes time with you and is really interested in solving your problems.
I’ve had plenty of visits that were under <5min with only the bare basics discussed.
Yep, same here, except you get to pay after the visit as well!
I’m (un)lucky enough to have a GP who doesn’t end a consultation before everything is perfectly clear and checked, but always runs at least an hour late.
The second part is relatable.
Still, saves more time than having to make a new appointment (or change doctor) because the first appointment was so rushed
Good timing with this post. I took a $20 at home covid test and tested positive, but because my boss needs a doctor’s note I’m having to spend $175 to get tested again and get a piece of fucking paper proving that yes, I’m God damn miserable.
Is your boss at least paying for it?
I was charged $450 for a doctor’s signature on medication. They never even saw me. Fortunately, I was able to have it written off as not payable.
Many years ago, my mum took me to some scammer who was larping as a miracle healer. He just swung around a pendulum for half a minute, offered some life advice which was obviously horse shit and then cashed in.
That certainly felt like he had just ‘seen’ me, too. None of what he said, had anything to do with me. Literally could have been a video, it would have been just as unhelpful.I thought the doctors hairline was his mouth and he looks incredible mad. The blue color was also fitting.
Brilliant!
America right there 🤣
I feel like I should visit my doctor tomorrow to just flex…
