Word: physicians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...provided an incentive to hold down costs, the "rats" could force a much greater sharing of facilities. Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital, for example, provides computerized electrocardiogram analysis for seven other hospitals in Michigan. When a heart patient checks into Crystal Falls Community Hospital in the Upper Peninsula, a physician attaches wires to the patient's arms, legs and chest, then pushes a button that activates a line to the Ford Hospital computer. As soon as a circuit is clear, the Detroit computer signals "go," then reads the electrical signals and transmits an analysis of the readings?at far lower...
...supply of doctors has increased gradually to 2 per 1,000 population from 1.5 in 1960. But to the chagrin of classical market theorist, no competitive fee cutting has occurred. Indeed, one physician calculates gloomily that every time a new doctor begins practice the nation's medical bills go up another $250,000 a year. Reason: the typical physician generates that much additional business in the tests and hospital admissions...
...insurance companies will pay for lab tests only if they are done in a hospital on a supposedly sick patient. The result is to encourage hospitalization of untold thousands of people who could be diagnosed and/or treated at far less cost in a doctor's office. Says one Houston physician: "Say a man in his late 30s to early 40s complains of chest pains. I tell him he needs a thorough physical. In the office my fee would be $45, the tests $250, for a total of $295. But I have to put the patient in the hospital...
...aged and the poor. In addition, it would give those unprotected by company or public plans a chance of buying insurance at a "reasonable" cost, although that figure has not yet been determined. This insurance, subsidized by the Government, would provide a "core benefit package," including hospital and physician services, X-ray and lab tests, and would also probably provide some kind of catastrophe coverage. Cost of the total Carter plan to the Government: $15 billion a year. Employees and employers would pay $5 billion...
...first essential is to reform insurance practices. Some beginnings have been made: Blue Cross-Blue Shield will no longer automatically pay for a battery of tests administered to every patient who enters a hospital unless each test is specifically ordered by the attending physician. Insurance policies should be rewritten to pay for lab tests and other care administered in a doctor's office rather than a hospital. If Congress will not push the Blue plans and private insurers in this direction, corporations could and should. Exxon, General Motors and AT&T have the bargaining power that individual patients lack...