And why you should care:
Many people who follow health care policy believe it may already be too late to save primary care medicine. At the very least we will have two tiers of medicine. Retainer or concierge practices that cater to the wealthy and nurse practitioners who deal with routine health matters. Emergency rooms will be filled with everyone else. Patients will shuffle from specialist to specialist with no coordination, and costs will soar.
Related posts:
- What role should nurse practitioners play in primary care?
- When specialists provide primary care, and why patients aren’t complaining
- Reader letters: The primary care crisis – don’t take my word for it
- Starting physician salaries
- Physician-patient e-mails cut doctors’ salaries
- Physician salaries are not keeping up with inflation
- Op-ed: Shortage of primary care threatens health care system
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 1 comment }
We have already started to see this in our community as several retail clinics have opened. One of the major trends that has occured with their opening is an increased use of specialists for what would otherwise be routine matters and direct referrals to the local ERs.
These clinics function with strict guidelines to help restrict liability dictating what is and what is not to be treated. They also have patients sign arbitration agreements and additional statements that state “they are not a substitute for comprehensive care and evaluation of general health”.
Comments on this entry are closed.