Is specialty medicine driving up the cost of HEALTH CARE?
9/6/2009 By DUANE SCHRAG/Salina Journal It’s not entirely true that doctors earn a lot of money. Some earn a lot more. When the Kansas Department of Labor published its 2005 wage survey, the 10 highest-paid occupations were all doctors. In 2006, nine of the top 10 were docs. In 2007, same story. In 2008, all 10 were doctors. With all the recent attention to health care reform, it’s natural that some of the focus will be on doctor pay. But how that fits into the health care picture isn’t simple. “There’s a tendency in compensation discussions to make good guys and bad guys,” says Dr. Alan Wedel, a partner in COMCARE, a family practice clinic that seeks to provide comprehensive health care. “I think the most sustainable models integrate care and the economics of the business side.” Just how much money Kansas physicians earn isn’t readily available, but there are some indications beyond the state’s wage survey. In its annual filing with the Internal Revenue Service, Salina Regional Health
