1/3 of you were doctors.
1/3 were unrelated to the health field
and 1/3 was everyone else.
In one question I asked about how much you think Medicare pays your primary care doc for a mid complex office visit. I blogged about the answer here .
I use a mid complex office visit as a blended average of a level 3 and a level 4 office visit. Depending on where you live in the united states, this 20-30 minute (minimum) mixed level office visit will pay approximately $75 by Medicare.
3/4 of respondents underestimated the result, with 20% believing it was as low as $20. Only 20% overestimated the result.
Over 50% of respondents believe that it should pay at least $100. And 25% felt a minimum $120 was justified.
Stunningly, 20% feel that this level of time and service should be worth $60 or less.
If left with insurance without access and paying your primary care doctor out of pocket, over 40% would be willing to pay at least $100. A full 40% would limit their payment to $60-80 dollars.
Only 12% felt $40 was to much.
I then proposed a question as to how much you would be willing to pay in a yearly access fee to guarantee access to your physician. As reimbursements continue to decline, access fees will have to supplant insurance as a way to survive. As I expected, only 13% said no to any fee. Over 40% listed $500/year as a minimum. Almost 1/4 agreed to $300-$400/year.
This tells me that the market for primary care is alive and well from the patients point of view and is being artificially suppressed by 3rd party collusion.
Most correctly (over 80%) surmised that primary averages less than $180,000 take home pay per year.
Unfortunately, only 50% felt that a primary care physician should make at least $180,000. This pales in comparison to most other specialties and is the reason for the death of primary care.
1/3 believed that the primary care physician was only worth $140,000 a year. Again, an unreasonable expectation when specialties offer a vastly superior reimbursement tree. Unmanaged expectations shows its ugly head again.
So while 2/3 of patients are willing to pay minimum access fees of $300/year to guarantee access, a full 50% felt the value was there, to the tune of $500 a year
A full 70% spent at least $300 last year on cable/satellite ( more likely closer to $500)
A full 20% of blog readers spend almost $1000 a year on cable/satellite TV.
If you think balance billing is unfair, cancel your cable.
Thanks to all who responded. it was enlightening.
It is interesting to see the difference of perceived versus expected value. It is hard for the uninsured, working poor to have sympathy with a doctor that cries about low reimbursement rates, "low" salaries, and high debt. The picture is contradictory when the doctor drives a fancy car, has a large home, wears designer duds and outfits his examining rooms with leather chairs (true, a patient almost expects that). When an uninsured patient is asked to part with $100 for a visit regarding a simple matter, it is no small thing. Somehow expectations and perceived greed needs to be tempered.
ReplyDeleteI love your comparison with cable TV. I just wrote a check to my hairdresser for $270 and it was a terrible cut and color. The service call for my heater was $100 and that was before the repair. I was at the office until 7:30PM last night...guess the family will just need to wait. Everyone is taking time off at Christmas but I'll be on call for patients and pharmacy refills for those who "forgot". I'm not complaining...just a little reality check for your readers who call it "greed". The market place will solve this. The few doctors who go into primary care will charge access fees, just as you said, to balance the market forces.
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