I appreciate the efforts of Dr. Kornfeld to
bring up the elephant in the room. It seems none
of our colleagues wish to discuss the REAL
issue, as none have responded. We are not in
control of our practices - medically nor from a
business standpoint. Anyone who thinks so is
fooling themselves.
Dr. Kornfeld asks, "What are we willing to do?"
Doctors, ALL doctors have an enormous amount of
power. That is why laws have been written to
restrict us. We gave up our power when we signed
up to work for insurance companies - all of
them. It does not have to be that way, it wasn't
before and patients got care from their doctors,
paid them and got reimbursed from the insurance
they paid for.
We have removed the patient from the equation in
an effort to get more money and have gotten less
and less. No fee schedule decrease is a loss;
just look at your bank account with little to no
interest and you are losing money to inflation -
It's thesame concept.
We must face the hard facts that continuing to
work within THEIR system is not good practice
management.
I have written the APMA repeatedly, without
response, about leading us in the wrong
direction. I am no longer a member. That is my
first step. I have to cut overhead somewhere and
they are doing nothing to keep my practice under
my control. What would you have done if your
income dropped 28% with you doing everything the
APMA told you to do? What would they have done?
Maybe this letter will generate some intelligent
response from the readers of this important
listserv, which in my opinion, is the only hope
for discussion in our profession.
Jack Sasiene, DPM, Texas City, TX,
Sasiene@aol.com
