Health & Healthcare
Conflicts of Interest Among Physicians II
I previously posted a few times about conflicts of interest within the medical profession. A friend of a friend who reads my posts posed the simple question to me:
Isn’t the entire medical profession in conflict because it is profit driven?
This is an interesting question. After all, doctors make their living either seeing patients or doing procedures. No office visits, consultations, or surgeries then no income is generated. Thus wouldn’t doctors all benefit from making sure that patients keep coming back and that more procedures are done? Unfortunately this is true. It’s kind of like taking your car to the mechanic and asking what is wrong and for him to fix it. Of course you need a new transmission and spark plug and timing belt. Without it how is he going to feed his family and pay his mortgage? Luckily doctors take an oath to place their patients interests first. Do mechanics do the same? Maybe. Maybe not. Do lawyers do the same?
I don’t ever see a solution to this problem, unless we move to a system where doctors are all salaried and receive no reimbursement based on volume or procedures. But I don’t think that will ever happen. Physicians are entrepreneurial and that is why the private practice of medicine exists today. Granted, more doctors are moving towards working for salaries but there will always be a paying customer for specialized elective services. People will always be willing to pay a premium to have that special procedure or see that specialized physician.
So is it really a problem that doctors profit from their work? I say no. Every other profession makes money from their work AND most of those professions don’t take an oath to out the customer above all else.
2 Comments/Trackbacks
MSB
A related question: how is compliance with the oath ensured. By doctors, no? Hmm.
Leave a Reply
Sunday, March 21, 2010
- Religion - A "Natural" Phenomenon?
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 1 - The Five Myths
- How Culture Shapes Our Mind and Brain
- Sex, Violence and The Male Warrior Hypothesis
- The Secret to Good Health – Listen to the Data
- If Herbal Medicine is Medicine, Shouldn't it be Treated as Such?
- Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Neuroscience Conferences for 2010
- Too Much Information?
- "I Feel Your Pain" - The Neural Basis of Empathy
- Income Inequality and Health Outcomes
- The Evolution of Depression
- Journal Retracts Autism Research
- Speaking in Tongues - A Neural Snapshot
- Why Some Human Brains Become Leaders, While Others Followers?
- Post-Partum Psychosis - Rare but Real
- Is Your Doctor Happy or Burnt-Out?
- Ginkgo Biloba Ineffective... Again
- Worried Well on the Web
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 2 - The Solutions
- Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction
- Empathy – How Much is Too Much?
- Let the Matches Begin!
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 4 – Their Life Today
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 3 – Try to Work Out their Troubles
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 2 – Revealed to be Complicated
- My Nephew and his Brain, Part 1 – Introduction
- Deep Brain Stimulation – A New Frontier in Psychiatry
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 3 – Equip Teachers with Prescription Pads?
- Why Some Human Brains Become Leaders, While Others Followers?
- Brain Blogger Finalist for Two 2010 Research Blogging Awards in Neuroscience and Psychology
- Tall Tales of Diabetic Amputations
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 2 – The Solutions
- Brain Blogging, Forty-Ninth Edition
- How Your Brain Groups Words
- The Child Brain and the Playing Teacher
- You Have a Right to Choose if we Agree
- Measuring Quality in Primary Care
- Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me A Match – The NRMP Main Residency Match
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 1 – The Five Myths
- When It Comes to Aging, Size Matters
- Great help, understood who is a LEADER & a FOLLOWER. Is there a category wh...
- Don't agree, to my opinion empathy is not easily learned, it's a quality not eve...
- Thanks, got the meaning of INTELLIGENCE/IQ....
- I'm a 54 yrs old woman .i was working for a retail company for 5 yrs ,my husbend...
- Thanks so much for sharing. My daughter began having seizures when she was 17. S...
- yea ur right lol lughter the best medicine i cnt do without it in a day!!!!!!!!!...
- Very touching story. My heart goes out to your family. Seizures are tough. And ...
- Thank you for sharing your nephew's story. So hard on those who love him, but I...
- Congratulations to all who've matched! Although the results of NRMP Main Residen...
- It's been almost 25 years since my son suffered a TBI in an accident. He was onl...
- I tend to agree with the teachers.But a teacher can only keep a record about the...
- Very interesting article, the 5th paragraph gets a little biased...but I still e...
- Dear Dan,There is certainly much clinical interest in this field. ClinicalTr...
- I recently commented on a sciencedaily.com article reporting success with TRD an...
- I have family members who are teachers. After sharing this article with them, th...
- It is great that people are challenging the use of this medication. As, a societ...
- I agree with the stand of the teachers and their children's that more than half ...
- I think that there’s also a social aspect to it. If you grow up in an area where...
- I have had epilepsy since I was 9 and am now 42. I have tried about every med. o...
- In this text is a serious error. Brain areas are found that contain religious ex...
Sponsored Links
Brain Fitness DVD, Home Care, Alcohol Rehab, Emergency Lighting, Online Criminal Justice Degrees, Tattoo, Diet and Health Supplements, Best vitamins supplements, Health Insurance, Electronic Accessory , Rollup Banner Stands , Biotechnology , Breast Cancer Stages , Sclerodex , Cystic Fibrosis Symptoms , Erlotinib , Dallas health insurance agency , Knee Pain Treatment , Affordable Health Insurance , Colon Cancer Treatment , immigration attorney Allen , How Does Age Affect Reproduction? , Edgepark Medical , Mattress , Hydroxycut, Astrology compatibility.
Neuroscience & Neurology
March 06, 2010 | 8 Comments | By Simi Agarwal, DDS
Why Some Human Brains Become Leaders, While Others Followers?
More In Neuroscience & Neurology
- How Your Brain Groups Words
- The Child Brain and the Playing Teacher
- “I Feel Your Pain” – The Neural Basis of Empathy
- Speaking in Tongues – A Neural Snapshot
- Neuro Case 1 – Using Transcranial Doppler for Basilar Artery Occlusion
Neuroscience & Neurology
Opinion
February 01, 2010 | 1 Comment | By Jennifer Gibson, PharmD
Crossing the Line from Physician to Journalist
More In Opinion
- Sex, Violence and The Male Warrior Hypothesis
- Bruxism and the Brain
- Religion – A “Natural” Phenomenon?
- Natural Good, Chemical Bad – Right?
- Time for a Change – Gender Reassignment
Opinion
Psychiatry & Psychology
March 21, 2010 | 1 Comment | By Jennifer Gibson, PharmD
Empathy – How Much is Too Much?
More In Psychiatry & Psychology
- Deep Brain Stimulation – A New Frontier in Psychiatry
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 2 – The Solutions
- Psychotropics and Youth, Part 1 – The Five Myths
- Journal Retracts Autism Research
- White Bears – The Paradox of Mental Suppression


In Canada, where all docs are salaried, efforts to add a private tier
to the national health care system have been defeated in Parliament.
Just as insurance companies have no place in a health care system
for the US, docs should not be in charge of the financial management of the health
care system. Health care needs to be a service provided by government
to all citizens, not a businees in which the entrepreneurial do best.
Medicine is a profession whose values have been threatened by business.
Doctors should earn good salaries for working a set number of hours, with
compensation from the gov’t for student loans, etc.
As the wife of a physician and a health care professional, I think doctors
are being shafted, but I have no sympathy for those who feel they’re entitled
to exorbitant incomes driven by procedures and who increasingly refuse
to accept insurance and public medical programs..