Opinion
What a deal: Lower pay but more work
LETTER — Posted June 25, 2007
Regarding "Contract shock: PPO merger cuts physician pay" (Article, May 21): The cutting of physicians' fees as done by Private Healthcare Systems and discussed by James Burke, senior vice president for network development for MultiPlan (which merged with PHCS) in the article was interesting.
His comment that the fee cut would yield a larger volume of patients and he did not consider that to be adverse made me think this would work in our already busy primary care practice. Consequently, I proposed to the staff that they would be paid less but could make it up by working more. I am still waiting for an answer that I can print.
Thomas Murphy, MD, Houston
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/06/25/edlt0625.htm.
