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Tuesday, September 03, 2019

I'll pretend to be your doctor,Medicare will pretend to pay me

Has it really gotten that bad? Are things devolving to the point where an application of a version of the following Russian joke is applicable to the changes in medical practice? Russians would say " we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us"?

This off-the-wall thought emerged from two of us perhaps catalyzed by dinner wine, as three retired internists gathered for a meal and pointless complaining session.

One of the three played several roles in my life; partner in an internal medicine practice,consultant when I left that practice, my personal physician until his group practice faced bankruptcy.It was he who remarked about his recent annual check up with a younger general internist who had been his former partner. He was irritarted how brief and perfunctory his physical exam had been. I was able to top that.

My recent annual exam with another former partner from that same clinic was interesting.He had me strip to shorts and put on a open-in-the-back paper gown. He then auscultated my posterior chest and that was it. I could have had an alien creature bulging from my anterior chest or abdomen and it would have gone unnoticed.




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