Paying doctors to ignore patients

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New York Times, July 24, 2008

This New York Times op-ed offers an analysis of the flaws in our current fee-for-service reimbursement system by contrasting the profitability of a CT scan to a standard patient visit. "The best way for a doctor to make money in his practice is not to spend time with patients but to use equipment as much as possible," says Peter B. Bach, MD, a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "That means moving the maximum number of patients through the practice, and spending the minimum amount of time with each one."

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