Word: doctorate
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Aiding the Poor. The Senate Finance Committee investigators did not allege overcharging by Polansky-but in drawing attention to his unusually large payments, they seemed to be implying that the doctor was bilking the Government. Actually, Polansky, no Cadillac-and-country-club doctor, has practiced for 21 years in the grubby Lake Michigan port of Benton Harbor. His dilapidated office is above a clothing store on West Main Street. Working with him are three full-time assistants...
...Polansky tells it-and local residents generally agree-he has become known as virtually the only doctor willing to treat the poor, especially Negroes. "Even before this Medicaid," said one patient, "Dr. Polansky would treat you even if you didn't have the money." Polansky has had to keep his office open seven days a week, and to work twelve-hour days except on Tuesdays and Saturdays, when he let himself off after nine hours. As for his charges, Blue Shield itself notes that they "are not only moderate, but are below average in many significant cases." One example...
...stands to reason that a doctor should show greater expertise than the average man in picking a doctor for himself. Not so, says Sociologist Herbert Bynder of the University of Colorado. Doctors like to think that they choose their own physicians on the basis of qualifications and competence, but in most cases they are deceiving themselves...
...Bynder sees it, the chief factor involved when a doctor picks his own doctor is his inability to give up his superior role. "Doctors don't want to be dependent," he says. "They can't stand the thought of losing rank and of being subordinate, even to another physician. All their training and background in medicine are against it. Their role in practicing medicine is always that of a superior, an authoritarian who gives the orders...
Talking Down. Among Bynder's criteria for rating the doctors chosen by other doctors are: 1) whether they have university appointments and if so, what rank, 2) their standing in professional societies, and 3) whether they are board-certified specialists. According to these standards, doctors choose a topnotch doctor in only 33% of the cases involving a minor illness. With a more serious illness, they are more likely to seek the most expert care. But Bynder found it "particularly striking" that even in such instances, they buy the best in only 55% of the cases...