A family physician shares her ideas on fixing our health care system. Someone better put Elizabeth Pector in charge of something, because her ideas need to be instilled stat. Like this one, explaining why physicians deserve equal rights:

When it comes to equality, doctors get the short end of the stick in our health-care system. Payers now set non-negotiable fee schedules, meaning doctors can’t set prices compatible with practice survival. The paperwork and preauthorization hurdles erected by payers have multiplied in just the past few years. Pharmaceutical companies keep pushing costly new drugs, believing that a few months of coupons will justify excessive prices (and preauthorization hassles) later.

Patients often suffer from “entitlementiasis,” having adopted a consumer view that the customer is always right. Their satisfaction is measured by whether they got what they wanted””antibiotics for colds, orders for exotic lab tests””regardless of whether their requests were medically indicated. Politicians jump on the bandwagon for EHR and other health-information technology, imposing another costly unfunded mandate on doctors.

In short, as part of restructuring the health-care system, physicians need to be put back on a level playing field with the rest of the health-care players, so they can provide input prior to implementation of supposed cost-saving measures that often only transfer costs to doctors.

Bravo Dr. Pector. The whole article is well worth reading.