I am a working family practice physician looking at retiring to TV in 3 months. The original post actually contains some very believable information. This is not isolated to TV but is a nationwide phenomena. Budget cutting, pink slips, higher patient loads and a lot more documentation has been the norm since the Affordable Care Act (quite misnamed) started to bite. When I first bought in TV about 4 years ago I heard the flowering reports from friends of the "Marcus Welby" style of health care. I considered it a fairy tale as the only way to provide that level of service is either concierge medicine (say an extra 3-7K a year) or a white knight willing to heavily subsidize the plan. Otherwise its not (to use one of the current fashionable buzzwords) sustainable. Did they really think they had found the holy grail no one else has found? Two patients and hour won't pay for a medical assistant, receptionist, triage specialist and the100k a year for the electronic medical record. I don't know what UHC is paying for the standard medical visit (99214 ICDM code) but I doubt it covers 30 min. Economics says if you want to stay afloat you see at least 4 patients per hour and 6 if you can do it. Specialists can give more time but they charge a lot more. A 5 min dermatology visit can run $400 retail which is reduced by insurance company contract to $80.
One of the new wrinkles of Obamacare is physicians and hospitals have part of their income determined by "patient satisfaction". This is a total wild card as few send the surveys in unless they have an ax to grind. In short medical systems are cutting costs and consolidating because of declining revenues. TV is not immune, and its not finished yet. Shortage of providers is on the horizon which will push wait times into months. Urgent Care waits will typically be 4 hours or more and ER's will be jam packed. A good analogy is kind of like a gallon of milk is only $1 - if you can find anyone who has it.
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