Page 9 - Delaware Medical Journal - March/April 2019
P. 9
PRESIDENT’S PAGE
ANDREW W. DAHLKE, MD
MSD President Andrew W. Dahlke, MD is a Neuroradiologist who practices with Southern Delaware Imaging Associates in Lewes.
Low Payments, Government Regulation Have Exacerbated a Crisis
Diminished physician payments are leading to the death of private practice and the rise of the
employed physician.
In 2017, Oliver Owaid penned a most impressive article on health care in The Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law. According to the article, the excess cost of American health care is due to “shortsighted legislation, pharmaceutical industry, subsidizing the health insurance industry, and allowing anti- competitive hospital systems to continue to grow throughout the country.” 1
Mr. Owaid states that because the
federal government has not stepped in
to help with the problem of physician reimbursement and continues to enact more regulations on physicians, privately owned practices are closing their doors
in record numbers. Mr. Owaid reports that in 2015, the total cost of personal health care in the United States was greater than $3.2 trillion. Doctors were reportedly paid $502 billion, with the rest split between hospitals (over $1 trillion), insurance companies (over $1 trillion), and the pharmaceutical industry ($324 billion). The thought that physicians
are well-compensated and in some way responsible for the high cost of health care is a common misconception.
The article further explains that
reporting by the Centers for Medicare
for physicians. For instance, Medicare Part B reporting does not distinguish between payments for services and payments for pharmaceuticals given to a patient in a clinical or practice setting. In Medicare Fee Schedule was $70 billion, compared to $262 billion for Part B overall costs. In 2017, Part B expenditures were projected to increase by 12% to $295 billion, while the Physicians’ Medicare Fee Schedule was projected to decrease by 11%.1
Medicare Part D provides much-needed
their pharmaceutical costs. However, as unfair as it is, the pharmaceutical industry Under the “No Interference” clause,
CMS was not granted the authority to
set or negotiate drug prices. This means that the U.S. government pays full price for drugs covered under the Medicare
the cost per person, compared to other industrialized countries.
According to the article, “physicians’ pay
Del Med J | March/April 2019 | Vol. 91 | No. 2 57
