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The Message in the Silence
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:1090-1091.
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The editorial "Sustaining Optimism"1 in the May issue of the ARCHIVES raises important questions, which I would like to answer from the perspective of a pediatrician in private practice. Like the residency applicants interviewed, I too spent time as a medical student and resident in clinics serving low-income patients. When I entered practice, we provided care to our share of Medicaid patients. Even though compensation failed to cover expenses, as pediatricians we held that children should not be denied first-class medical care because of parental financial circumstances.
Despite the increasing financial difficulties in maintaining a medical practice, and inadequate reimbursements, we continued to accept Medicaid until escalating bureaucratic regulations and procedures finally forced us to give up doing so. I believe that, as was the case with our practice, it is the insurmountable day-to-day hassles more than lack of top-dollar compensation that have pushed physicians in private practiceto drop Medicaid . . . [Full Text of this Article] AUTHOR INFORMATION
David H. Austein, MD
RELATED ARTICLE
The Message in the Silence—Reply
Frederick P. Rivara
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158(11):1091.
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