Posted on 06/27/2011 10:42:20 AM PDT by CitizenM
Secret shoppers aren’t anything new. Retail stores use them regularly to gather customer service data. But what happens when the government uses them to check up on doctors across the country? Is that going too far? That‘s exactly what’s about to happen to over 4,000 doctors in nine states.
The New York Times reports that 4,185 doctors in Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia — 465 in each state — will be getting stealth calls from people posing as potential patients. The point is to see if doctors are discriminating against those with government care such as Medicare, and to decipher how long wait times are.
“Access to primary care is a priority for the administration,” Health and Human Services spokesman Christian J. Stenrud told the Times. “This study is an effort to better understand the problem and make sure we are doing everything we can to support primary care physicians, especially in communities where the need is greatest.”
But plenty of doctors don’t see this as a friendly phone call as much as a government encroachment. Or, worse, Big Brother.
“I don’t like the idea of the government snooping,” Dr. Raymond Scalettar, an internist in Washington, told the Times. “It’s a pernicious practice — Big Brother tactics, which should be opposed.”
And that seems to be the consensus of those physicians interviewed by the Times:
You MUST Read more at link, including the comments.
For not taking ANY new patients? Not going to happen anytime in the near future, there is no mechanism in place NOW to accomplish that, though it is exactly what is coming, IF enough doctors kowtow to the government.
The wisest course is to plan on moving the practice to a Caribbean island and specialize.
The government cannot replace the GOOD doctors that resist, plan and execute a Galt.
The government can only put out a bunch of affirmative action enslaved by debt quack hacks to kill off the population, and they won't keep it secret for long.
Taxes will be astronomical, doctors will be paupers forever working intern hours, and jackboots and malingerers will be rolling in entitlement dough. If you're really sick and unconnected, you're dead.
How's this: Doctors turn into care mills, a cursory exam, a prescription and bada-bing! out the door. In other words the care will suck for everyone within a few years.
Umm, did you read my whole post? I was being sarcastic. I don’t use the /s tag so popular among freepers.
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