The Edge Talks to Mad as Hell Doctor Paul Hochfeld -October 10, 2009

The Edge Talk Radio talks to Dr. Paul Hochfeld, one of the Mad as Hell Doctors who journeyed from Portland, Oregon to Washington DC.  Dave and Di talked to Paul prior to his arrival in DC on September 30th.  And today Dr. Paul talks about staying in DC and although not invited getting into the President's doctors news conference on October 5.  He tells us that many of the Doctors for Obama he met there thinks that the single payer and national health care plan people are a bit delusional.   He also reveals how doctors are paid and how the AMA has a secret panel that devises evaluation or intervention codes.  Medicare subcontracts this job to the AMA that then is  paid 100 million dollars a year. These CPT codes are updated every 5 years by something called the RUC (Reimbursement Update Committee). They determine that dermotolgists get paid more than primary care physicians.   He bluntly tells us that specialists who make more than $500,000 aren't terribly interested in changing the system.  We have a huge crisis in not having enough primary care physicians.  They are paid far less than a specialist.

Dr. Paul is smart, funny,  and determined to keep working towards a health care system where eveybody is in the system and no one is out.