During the time I have been practicing medicine, the dominantethos seems to have changed. We have gone from doing the rightthing for the patient no matter what to doing the right thingfor the patient as long as it doesn't hurt our hospital or practiceor the insurance company too much.
Years ago, I started receiving report cards from insurers thattold me how I was doing relative to other practitioners in termsof hospital utilization, medications, referrals to specialists,and other cost measures. My numbers were usually good, and Icould pat myself on the back for . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Dr. Vonnegut is a pediatrician in Quincy, MA.
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