Tax the Rich{Doctors} to Lower the cost of Healthcare [VIDEO ADDED]

In the ongoing drum beat against the doctor in terms of income earned, Massachusetts lawmakers are trying to lower the cost of healthcare and have decided that doctors simply charge too much.  I spoke about this perception of the richdoctor previously as more of an attitude, but Massachusetts has taken it to a practical level with monetary penalties for the richdoctor.

“Massachusetts House leaders released amajor proposal to curb health care costs Friday, calling for new limits on thefees charged by hospitals and doctors and for creation of an independent agencyto monitor medical spending….Providers that charge prices deemed excessive andthat they cannot prove are linked to above-average quality would pay a tax,similar to the luxury tax Major League Baseball imposes on the big-spending NewYork Yankees and Boston Red Sox”

Of course the doctors and hospital groups are fighting this:

“Lynn Nicholas, president of the state hospital group, said, “To expect the health care industry to perform at less than the economy overall is unreasonable and will impinge on our ability to deliver care at the level people expect. . . . That may damage the economy more than it helps it, and, because of that, jobs may be lost.’’

The bill will not only lower what a physician can charge for an appointment or procedure, but a tax will be levied on the provider if he/she cannot prove that the care was more exceptional than the care down the street.  Medicine is a service and we all have different definitions of quality service.  Thus, an immeasurable item cannot be proved or disproved.  The only measurable component in healthcare is if you are still alive after the appointment or procedure.  If you are, then the quality was excellent.

Physicians today are being squeezed financially, with increasing overhead and stagnant reimbursement due to a frozen Medicare fee schedule for approximately 10 years, now Massachusetts not only wants to lower reimbursement rates, but tax providers for simply trying to stay viable in business.  Ms. Nichols states this rather well, one cannot expect a business person to perform their skill or sell a product at less than is needed to keep one’s business profitable.

“The bill also encourages providers to form so-called accountable care organizations to care for patients in a more efficient coordinated fashion, and pushes insurers to shift toward global payments, which pay providers a lump sum to care for a group of patients, and away from paying separate fees for every service.”

If this bill passes and implemented, then doctors will have to consider if they are willing to take pay cuts, live at a lower standard of living than doctors a generation ago, and continue to work the same number of hours they work now, in Massachusetts at least.

UPDATE: This video, from the Pioneer Institute, offers five ways that payment reform legislation on Beacon Hill misses the mark on true health care reform: