This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Response to CMS data release
To the Editor:
The perception of what physicians make by the release of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data on what CMS “pays” physicians would be analogous to one postulating that the income of a convenience store cashier is equivalent to what his total cash register receipts are in an 8-hour work period (Physicians react to CMS data release, May 10, 2014, pages 1 and 19-20). A physician who has to buy pharmaceuticals and then get reimbursed from the government for not just his normal overhead cost (70%) but the cost of the extremely expensive pharmaceuticals makes the number reported completely erroneous as it is perceived as the “take-home” pay of the physician. Much the same, the convenience store cashier may be making $15 an hour, but over an 8-hour period may ring up $20,000 in purchases. If we were to take the same concept and publish what the cashier bills or collects, we would all agree that he/she is raking it in, and frankly it appears gluttonous when it could be no further from the truth. So, to me, the net effect of the CMS release of data with zero context does accomplish the continued effort to demonize U.S. physicians as overpaid greedy social parasites.
John F. Doane, MD, FACS Discover Vision Centers Kansas City, Mo.