preview

Change In Health Care Essay

Good Essays

Would you rather have a physician who is more focused on paperwork or one who is more focused on making you better? In 2010, the United States government passed a federal bill called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which allows lower income people to buy insurance and expands the eligibility to apply for Medicaid. As a result of these changes made in health care, doctors are having to deal with more paperwork, making it more difficult to provide their patients with the care that they need. This debate has become an increasingly hot topic due to the fact that almost everyone is involved with healthcare in one way or another. Doctors, patients, nurses, administrators, and medical students are just a few groups of people that …show more content…

In the case of physicians, there are many more noticeable negative aspects to changing health care. Being a physician is already a very demanding task, and the increased amount of paperwork has proven too much for doctors to handle. For example, Dr. Gilles Mercier was placed on suspension and was forced to pay $14,000 in fines for failing to complete his paperwork on time (Hinkson). In an interview, Dr. Mercier stated that he “was working seven days a week for a total of 90 hours, at a time when the number of ob-gyns in the department fell to three from twelve” (Hinkson). Dr. Mercier was not the only physician having trouble balancing the large amount of paperwork on top of all of the other duties that a doctor has. Physician burnout is on a steep rise, increasing by 10% between 2011 and 2014 (“Physician”). Insurance companies are one of the main reasons that doctors have so much paperwork because of all the regulations and requirements associated with it. The relationship between physicians and insurance companies has gotten so bad that some physicians have chosen not to accept it (Cascardo). Health care is not just made up of doctors. Patients are a very important part of what keeps health care going. As a result, paperwork is not only has a negative impact on the job satisfaction for residents and attending

Get Access