Opinion

Primary care doctors have "ever-increasing burden of paperwork"

LETTER — Posted May 15, 2006

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Regarding "Performance pay plans will increase paperwork burden for physicians" (Letters, April 17): I strongly agree with letter writer Dean Raffaelli, DO, of Chicago. As primary care physicians, we are being bombarded with an ever-increasing burden of paperwork, including all kinds of absurd, insulting forms. I find my self spending a big portion of my day on this nonreimbursable work.

This abuse of primary care physicians comes from different sources, including insurance companies, government agencies, visiting nurses agencies and even some of our subspecialist colleagues. Although everybody knows about the hassle factor in medicine, I don't believe organized medicine realizes the extent of the problem.

Riad Saradar, MD, Uniontown, Pa.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/05/15/edlt0515.htm.

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