Who Killed U.S. Medicine?
by Tony Chen
That is the headline for the op-ed piece by Regina Herzlinger in today’s WP. Here’s a great quote from the article:
When I ask the many physicians who are enrolling at Harvard Business School for an MBA degree about their decision to switch occupations, they frequently answer, “I can no longer practice medicine.” You might expect that the AMA would fight the insurers, hospitals, government bureaucrats and ivory tower academics who have diminished physicians’ incomes, besmirched their ethical reputations and compromised their professionalism — but you would be wrong. No, instead, at its annual meeting last month, the AMA declared war on retail medical clinics, located in places such as CVS and Wal-Mart.
I’d love to hear from physician readers. For the almost $300 million spent on advocacy last year, do you believe you are getting enough return?
