Why are we having to see PA's instead of doctor's and paying the same price.?

Question:

PA's are most of the time nicer than the regular doctors, but I have found that the doctor does not agree most of the time with what the PA is telling them, so why should we have to be seen by them and then they charge the insurance like a real doctor saw you?

Answers:
You are right. The PA's though they may confer with the MD's usually end up running the show. The PA's talk to the patient, exam the patient, and yes they formulate a diagnosis and then they run it by the MD. And you or the insurance company pays the same for a less experienced less trained PA.

Why use PA? It's all about money. They are cheaper to hire if you are dealing with a large HMO like Kaiser. For private practices that use PA's, its about the MD making money. Think about it. If I have a busy practice, and I hire 2-4 PA's to do my job and all I have to do is to supervise them and see a few patients off the side and each PA sees about 20-25 patients a day at $45 a pop 4.5 day work week 49 weeks worked that works out to be about $220,000 per year in revenues. Subtract salary for the PA and overhead, the MD is pulling in some good money.

I think that PA's can be useful but like nurse practitioners and nurse anesthesic are degrading an already delapitated health care system.

Other Answers:
Don't really know why this is happening. GREAT point you brought up. Never thought of it in those terms before.

The job of a PA is to do the physical exam and then confer with the doctor. The PA has the examination skills while the doctor has the diagnostic skills. The setup usually involves several PA's that confer with one doctor. Saves time and money.

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Why are we having to see PA's instead of doctor's and paying the same price.?

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