Charles King: “I practiced with my wife””also an internist””and we tried to practice exactly as the ABIM proposes. Eventually, we were forced to retire and leave patients whom we had taken care of for as long as 39 years. We practiced preventive medicine and tried to protect our patients; our motive was only to help them, and we chose never to compromise those ideals. We never treated a patient differently from the way that we would want to be treated, and we always tried to put our patients’ point of view first.
For the ABIM’s proposal to work, there must be a change in the way payers reward physicians, and unfortunately, I do not see how that can be controlled. Presently, doctors are rewarded for letting their patients get sick enough to require hospitalization, and payers reimburse for technology (radiology and special procedures).”
