[disneysteve]

JB - What I think most people don't realize is that even as health care costs continue to climb, physician income has been steadily falling. The money simply isn't going to the doctors. It is going to the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the malpractice insurers, etc. Doctors have little to do with the rising costs.

As for over treatment to enhance revenues, that has been going on for decades. In fact, it was much worse years ago when most health plans worked on a fee-for-service basis. Do a procedure and get paid. Do more procedures and get paid more. Since managed care came along, there has been much more of a disincentive to do unnecessary procedures because the reimbursement is so much lower. I know a lot of doctors who stopped doing procedures they used to do because it simply wasn't worth it anymore. In our office, for example, we used to do gynecology care, PAP smears, etc. We stopped it years ago because it simply wasn't financially feasible to keep offering that service to our patients.