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As someone with a brain

If I went into a doctor's office and asked for an extra hour's worth of medical advice for free, then I'd understand the hesitation. But on the other hand:
My employer asks this of me all the time. Not just my employer. Ask anyone in the military. Ask any scientist. Ask any engineer. Ask any software developer. These people are simply expected to put in more than the 40 hours a week they are paid for. Meeting all your goals? Have some more goals to meet! If you want to keep your job, you'll put in the extra time.

But that aside, the thing that really irks me is the "Price" assigned to the extra medical advice. Maybe some people ask doctors for an extra hour worth of advice, but two out of the last three times I went to a doctor's office, I spoke to the doctor and physician's assistant COMBINED for less than 5 minutes. The third time, I spoke to the doctor for 30 minutes. The bill for each of the three visits? $300. Now for 30 minutes of doctoring, that works out to a modest $600 per hour. Even if the facility charges 200% overhead (which is outrageously high) that's enough for the doc to be earning a cool million per year. But for 5 minutes? Well, that works out to a solid $3600/hour. And I guarantee that doctor isn't pulling in seven figures - so where is that money going?

Now I know that other things go on; there's facilities maintenance, billing specialists, receptionists, and so on. But these don't add up. Other organizations manage the same amount of administrative overhead tasks on much smaller margins.

No one's saying that doctors shouldn't bill for their time. What we're saying is that they aren't billing for their time. The billing is capricious and amoral, and is done in a way to maximize profit within the bounds of an increasingly complicated landscape of healthcare regulation. People shouldn't become doctors for the money (and most I know haven't), just like people don't become scientists for the money, or join the military for the money. But it seems that some people in the healthcare industry can't see that if they aren't being paid enough to own a yacht and a private marina lease, that their services aren't being valued.

And at least my mechanic calls me with a quote for the proposed services first.

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