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A Perspective

ROBERT M. GOLDWYN, MD

AMA Arch Surg. 1973;107(2):127.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In the profuse discussions about the cost and distribution of medical care, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the question of what determines physicians' fees. Despite complex "relative value" schemes sufficient to choke a computer, many inconsistencies, inequities, and absurdities remain.

Before getting lost in specific enigmas, let us first try to recognize a few guiding generalities.

Physicians are paid according to the service performed without regard to outcome.

A radical mastectomy, for example, has an associated monetary value, irrespective of morbidity, mortality, or cure.

Perhaps the genesis of this modus operandi was the justifiable reluctance of the earliest physicians (and us today) to guarantee health and survival, which are not completely within the control of any human being. With or without a skilled doctor, disease and death eventually supervene.

Another feature often forgotten is that a medical payment does not depend upon the skill with which the service . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Brookline, Mass

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