Letters to the Editor

Dear Dr Carson,

I enjoyed the comment and your conclusions and agree wholeheartedly…. Multiple layers of bureaucracy and the need to support large organized healthcare increase cost and contribute to the dehumanized delivery of healthcare.

This is similar to what we experienced in the days when patients with no hope of recovery were maintained on life support indefinitely, because every day of hospitalization and every visit by a clinician contributed to income, not to patient well-being.

In the hospital and in large clinics—both extremely effective in billing at a high rate for services available in small offices at a fraction of the cost—institutions are paid based on their costs and their economic and political muscle.

These reimbursements are multiples of small, independent, efficient physicians.

Oh, well…I was encouraged by your thoughtful evaluation…was anyone else listening?

Peter W. Brown, MD
Board Certified, ABFP
Los Altos, California

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