There is a steady push to change the way that physicians are paid. No compensation model is ideal. The fee-for-service (FFS) model has become Public Enemy #1 as it is felt to be responsible for overtreatment generating excessive costs and utilization.
There is a steady push to change the way that physicians are paid. No compensation model is ideal. The fee-for-service (FFS) model has become Public Enemy #1 as it is felt to be responsible for overtreatment generating excessive costs and utilization. Salaried physicians may be freed from the FFS conflict of interest, but it has other drawbacks including a diminished incentive to provide exemplary service to patients and to referring physicians. Since physicians did not initiate compensation and health care reform decades ago when we should have, we are now being squeezed hard by external forces that will overcorrect on the system’s deficiencies. It’s always better to fix your own house. There should be a lesson here for other professions who are in need of some reform and repair. Teachers, in my view, were dragged into the education reform arena, and will suffer because of it. Attorneys have been smug and cavalier about the legal profession’s obscene excesses and I believe that they will rue their inaction.
