The American College of Physicians suggests that you opt out of specialist care and go for the primary care physician. Of course, health insurance companies will love for you to do that, too!
When it comes to choosing between a primary care physician (PCP) or a specialist, you’re often caught between two differing perspectives: 1. You choose the primary care physician for their knowledge of your other conditions, their wide-ranging experience, and their relative low expense when compared to specialists, OR 2. You choose a specialist because of their in-depth understanding of a particular condition and their track record treating a condition. In most cases a PCP will offer personalized health care, while a specialist will generally be less patient-facing.
What does the American College of Physicians suggest? The group believes the feds should pay more upfront for primary care, because doing so would lower costs in the long run by preventing expensive complications and helping patients to avoid hospitalization.
Weighing the Pros and Cons when Making Health Care Choices
Let’s take a look first at the good side to this proposed idea. If more money is given to primary care to begin with, rather than reimbursements later, then people would be getting the best in first-round care right away. Like noted above, this might help stave off the need to even be seen by specialists, if problems are addressed quickly and nipped in the bud before specialists need to step in.
A look at growth in supply of Primary Care Physicians vs Specialists, from 2005 to 2020.
Ostensibly, this would also allow primary care providers to get the money they deserve right away from the government or health insurance companies (instead of waiting for reimbursements from organizations that might never come). Similarly, patients would also have to pay less out-of-pocket or via their health insurance, because primary care often costs less than seeing a specialist.
What are the downsides to what the American College of Physicians has proposed? For starters, where on earth is this money from the feds supposed to come from? I think they may have forgotten that the United States doesn’t, in fact, have a magical garden where money grows on trees. We are smack dab in the middle of a recession/depression that won’t be righting itself any time in the near future.
Just hoping that the federal government will be able to come up with the funds necessary to make this happen is very unrealistic; that money needs to come from funds already circulating in our system. Yes, the way that our health care system is set up and run right now is very faulty. The millions of Americans without health insurance can attest to that fact. But if funds were moved around and allocated differently (as suggested with taking money from the specialists to give to primary care) then no more money would need to be produced by our already weakened economy.
Current Health Insurance System Underemphasizes Primary Care Physicians
Another concern with the current system is that it makes primary care physicians seem obsolete. This suggestion and the fact that they are currently underpaid makes them seem like second-tier doctors, when compared with specialists. Yes, specialists did have to learn a lot about one particular field of medicine. However, primary care physicians are the first line of defense and they are stuck with the obviously un-glorified task of diagnosing and treating patients to determine what specialist they need to be sent to int he first place.
SOURCE: 2007 Academic Practice Compensation and Production Survey for Faculty and Management, by the Medical Group Management Association.
Specialized medicine is where the big bucks and big glory is at. Is it any wonder there is a shortage of primary care doctors in this country? Med students want to get paid the top dollar, so of course they’re picking specialties. I personally know one second year med student who is aiming to become a primary care physician, because she recognizes the shortage here in the United States and wants to help fill that void.
When you’re staring in the face of mysterious symptoms, please look to a primary care physician first. Whether you have health insurance or not, most specialists will not see you without a referral from a primary care doctor. Let primary care docs do their job. How does one go about finding a primary care physician? The first place to start is health insurance. If you are currently without insurance or looking to switch, it’s always a good idea to research different health insurance companies and what they offer. Many differ in their plans and availability, and Affordable-Health-Insurance.com can help you figure out which health insurance company might be a good fit for you.
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Tags: health care, health insurance, pcp, physicians, primary care, specalist care
okay, just stop by and i feel lucky to read this
seemingly the informartion is wise..