Jan 22 2014
The New York Times: Patients' Costs Skyrocket; Specialists' Incomes Soar
Ms. Little's seemingly minor medical problem -; she had the least dangerous form of skin cancer -; racked up big bills because it involved three doctors from specialties that are among the highest compensated in medicine, and it was done on the grounds of a hospital. Many specialists have become particularly adept at the business of medicine by becoming more entrepreneurial, protecting their turf through aggressive lobbying by their medical societies, and most of all, increasing revenues by offering new procedures -; or doing more of lucrative ones (Rosenthal, 1/18).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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