Posted on 11/17/2008 8:59:26 PM PST by buccaneer81
I’d settle for being able to write off all the charity care we give on my taxes. Can’t do that of course. Lawyers always trumpet their occasional “pro bono” work like a big badge of wonderfullness.
Two weeks later, served with intent to litigate. Patient's husband is a scum sucking bottom fecal consumer attorney. Damage? Mental anguish. Tells my friend "Nothing personal, just business! Beside, your insurance company will settle and you won't have to pay a dime. By the way, my wife has knee pain on the other side, will you fix it?"
Surgeon physically threw the husband out of his office. How he did not beat the hell out of him is beyond me...But THIS IS A TRUE STORY.
Your point is well taken, to them, it is not personal, but to me as a physician getting sued is calling me a bad doc, and them are fighting words to this redneck doc...
I agree, we should be able to write off the bad debt as charity, but noooooo, we cannot spread that wealth can we?
Nothing keeps me in line. Just ask my boss!
Okay here’s one. I get this guy in who fell down going to the bathroom and gashes his head. I stitch him up and end up putting a big pressure dressing on his head. He asks me how long it has to stay on, I tell him leave it on a day. His wife pipes up “thats gonna look good in court”. Dead silence. I ask, “so what do you do?”. He quietly responds, “ I’m a trial lawyer”. So I ask him, “want a cervical collar to go with that dressing councilor?” Guy starts laughing, “ man that was a low blow”.....
I also have never been sued. Every morning I mournfully tell my staff to “be careful out there because there is a scum sucking attorney just behind every patient’s smile”.
It’s not a matter of if, but when my MD FRiend.
Just Google the UK's NHS sometime. Is it stunning how many wrongful deaths there are. And terrifying how many folks are denied care. People with cancer denied expensive drugs until they reach a terminal stage. Insanity.
When they treat doctors like so many bus drivers, and pay them the same, then there better not be any grumbling when the doctors behave like the bus drivers' union.
-ccm
It's amazing how insouciant the lawyers are about this, too. "What are you worried about? Doctors win 85% of cases that go to trial. It's nothing!"
I've heard a lawyer suing on behalf of a CP baby say that he knows the obstetrician did all he could, but someone's got to pay for the kid's care, and that's why the OB has insurance...
-ccm
Got a lefty friend, a lawyer of course, who assures me that Obamacare will be a net plus for doctors because it will pay for all the uncompensated ER care now being delivered gratis under EMTALA.
Had to explain to him that this would be good for hospitals, and maybe a wash for hospital-based physicians after all their new taxes, but would do nothing at all for the average private practice primary-care physician.
-ccm
how come all the lawyers in the other cuntries dont sue the gov when ther’s a dleay of care or denial of treatmnet? And what are the chances that wont be happening here?
Ive maintained for years thta the #1 problem driving poor medical access her is cost and the #1 problem driving cost is malpractice fear and defensive medicine.
So whats more likely, the GOV taking on the payer role and leaving malpractice as is, or addressing the real problem and getting malpractice reform?
I’m a hospitalist, and I dont see much if any upside financially for this. At least now we get some private insurance. If all reimbursement rates drop to medicare rates, even with the formerly uninsured now paying, I still expect to loose a sig amount of income. As I said before, I will not work for the govenrment. If national healthcare is adopted, I will open the quilt shop Ive been wanting for a while anyway.
I’m an OMS who does right well working four days a week. Been pretty much spared federal intervention but I expect that to change in about three more months. My brother who is an internist just hung it up. He was making less than he did ten years ago all the while seeing more patients who were sicker. My plan for the new “soak it to the rich doctor plan” is to adjust my work schedule to limit my income so that I don’t end up paying over half the the feds. Maybe I can go to a two day a week schedule. The downside is I will see fewer patients who will end up in the ER for care and I will have to let a few employees go. But that is the goal of the American NHS pushers. If that fails I might just follow my brother’s example and spend more time fishing with him, he has a great boat. BTW, have I ever seen you on the other side of the blood-brain barrier?
Sounds like you would get along real well with my red neck orthopod brother in law. He doesn’t suffer a fool very well. He can also read, that makes two orthopods who can.
The Rat plan is Universal health care, WITHOUT tort reform. They think that will prevent the kind of problems they have in Canada and England with delays and rationing by making the hospitals and providers responsible for any bad outcomes. It’s insane.
The driving force behind this, of course, is the thrid party payers. As long as there IS a third party payer picking up the tab for whatever the doctor orders, this will continue. If patients were paying for their own care out of pocket, doctors would discuss the available tests with patients, the cost of each, and the likely benefit (or lack thereof) of each. Then the patient would decide which tests to buy, and the doctor would be off the hook as long as any reasonably relevant tests had been discussed.
As a heavy user of top notch veterinary medical services, I’m always struck by what excellent care and results are obtained, for a cost which, while it sounds huge for a cat, is tiny compared to what’s routinely shelled out for elderly humans with a comparable array of medical problems. All the same diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are available, and one makes reasoned decisions, based on cost, probably benefit, and discomfort/stress for the patient, as to which ones are worth proceeding with.
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