Comment: A small provider of ancillary medical services recently told the Truth Squad that federal bureaucrats showed up at a trade association conference and announced that they want to put all small medical providers out of business. They want all doctors, lab work, radiology, etc. to be provided by large hospitals. Anyone who has dealt with large institutions knows that this can’t possibly be the most efficient way to deliver services. So the question arises: Why do this? Why try to run all small providers out of business? Why concentrate all medical care into large hospitals? As the article below mentions, it’s all about control. It‘s much easier to control a relatively small number of hospitals than it is to get many tens of thousands of small offices to follow orders. Make no mistake, this move on the part of Washington to herd everything into large hospitals is a building block towards single-payer socialized medicine. That’s the game here, and we’re not afraid to name it for what it is. Washington has absolutely no business attempting to dictate industry structure in this manner. This is still a free country. We aim to keep it that way.
“…ObamaCare is gradually making the local doctor-owned medical practice a relic….”
“…when doctors practice in small offices, it is hard for Washington to regulate what they do….So ObamaCare shifts money to favor the delivery of outpatient care through hospital-owned networks.”
“ObamaCare’s main vehicle for ending the autonomous, private delivery of medicine is the hospital-owned “accountable care organization”…. The Obama administration also imposes new costs on physicians who remain independent…”
“…A recent survey by the Medical Group Management Association shows a nearly 75% increase in the number of active doctors employed by hospitals or hospital systems since 2000, reflecting a trend that sharply accelerated around the time that ObamaCare was enacted….”
“…physician productivity falls under these arrangements…the lost productivity is a consequence of the more fragmented, less accountable care that results from these schemes.”
“Once they work for hospitals, physicians change their behavior in two principal ways. Often they see fewer patients and perform fewer timely procedures. Continuity of care also declines, since a physician’s responsibilities end when his shift is over….”
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The Doctor Won’t See You Now. He’s Clocked Out
March 13, 2013
By SCOTT GOTTLIEB
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323628804578346614033833092.html?mod=wsj_valettop_email