The Happy Hospitalist thinks so, and I partially agree, as the physician payment system encourages specialization and the fractionation of patient care:
We are here ONLY as a financial necessity out of a payment system gone mad. As much as I rile on the MNB, I am forced to admit that my position as a hospitalist would be nonexistent if not for the incompetent clowns making policy decisions based on lobster dinners with lawyer lobbyists.
Dr. RW feels that if Medicare continues its current policy course of bundling payments, hospitalists’ futures will be secure and their salaries will continue to rise:
If the Medicare clowns implement the latest idea they’ve been tinkering with, the bundling of doctors’ rounding fees into hospital DRG payments, it will be the final finishing blow for traditional hospital care. The hospitalist model will be secure once and for all. Debates about our value will become moot. The demand for hospitalists will accelerate over the next decade and the future of inflating hospitalist salaries will be secure.
topics: medicare, hospitalists
