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I worked with a hepatologist once who donated his services to low-income patients with hep c. Encouraged by his selfless act, I called him to learn more about h
by dfee 9y ago
I worked with a hepatologist once who donated his services to low-income patients with hep c. Encouraged by his selfless act, I called him to learn more about how our services could help him (he was asking for a discount).
Well, it turns out that while his services were donated, he also owned a pharmacy and stood to make a lot more by using the donated time as what we might call a “customer acquisition cost”.
I would be surprised if he continues treating patients if the payout for treatment really goes down 30 fold. For what it’s worth, that’s a pretty typical physician I’ve worked with and I’ve worked with hundreds.
I don’t know why I expect more from physicians, but I do and they usually let me down.
- loceng 9y agoMoney as an incentive allows a lot of bad behaviour to exist, and regulating and enforcement bodies don't seem to have proper processes for self-regulation - which would catch this kind of conflict of interest, as one example.
- neuro_imager 9y agoI'm guessing you're in the US where this type of behaviour is typical. Fortunately that is not the case in many other parts of the world where incentives are not as perverse. (physician here)
- chimeracoder 9y ago> Fortunately that is not the case in many other parts of the world where incentives are not as perverse. Incentives absolutely are structurally perverse in other parts of the world. They're just perverse in different ways, which often mask the effects to patients.