14% cut!

[Lasvegas]

I’m sure we’ve all heard about this, it seems that the reimbursement cuts directed at anesthesia in 2007 are going to amount to approximately 14% if nothing changes. This with a major shortage of medical providers and physicians in general.

I am assuming that any County facility has no choice in the matter, but do those in private practice have to accept Medicare patients at all? It’s such a slap in the face that someone outside our profession can make such a significant ‘take it or leave it’ change.

Perhaps I’m naive, but why can’t we form some kind of union – one for each specialty in fact – that negotiates with these decision makers? As a U.S wide organized Union would we not have a far more powerful voice regarding our own future? I would even suggest a board of sorts made up of four or five department Chairs of major institutions, one from each quadrant of the U.S., and few senior members of the A.S.A.

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[matt1234321]

I think that would lead to national healthcare if that is even possible.

 

[blocks]

We do need to form a union. It should be a union of physicians looking out for physicians, all of us. We need to end the petty squabbling between the different fields and stand up for ourselves, and eachother. That means telling the governement to take their 5% across the board, or 14% to anesthesiology cut, and shove it. We don't play that. It means we as anesthesiologists standing up for pediatricians that make less than physician assistants. It means standing up for general surgeons that make slightly more than CRNAs, and work 100+ hours a week. We have the power if we exercise it. Instead of counting the cash we have at the moment, our leaders need to take action to save our profession, and our professional organizations that we support need to draw a line: no paycuts for doctors. Reimbursement INCREASE for the specialties like peds and FP that a bring home less than a Starbucks manager. Either society recognizes that health care only happens as a result of bright people's hard work and time away from family and friends, or we all walk out, and then you'll really see healthcare collapse, in a couple of hours.