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Jan-08-2009 00:45printcomments

General Practice Doctors: DOA OR MIA

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.

Dr. Phillip Leveque
Courtesy: mydochub.com

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - This catastrophe I saw coming up 30 years ago when I first started my medical practice. I was a Medical School Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology when it became possible for me to also become a student for my Dr. of Osteopathy degree.

I had taught in M.D. schools for 16 years and I was a Professor in the D.O. school for 7 years. The last three I was a full time Professor while I was a full time medical student. That may explain why I am a little crazy!

To those of you who don’t know what an Osteopathic Doctor is we do hand manipulations of body joints, mostly backs but we also do surgeries and write prescriptions just like M.D.’s. M.D.’s cannot do manipulations.

It is illegal for them to do them. They say manipulations are of not value but actually some M.D. Orthopedists actually do manipulations for bad backs.

I recently saw on TV news that General Practice doctors were disappearing and only 2 or 3 percent of the new M.D.’s were going into General Practice.


This is really bad but these new doctors know that a G.P. may only get one third of insurance payment the Medical Insurance Company will pay a specialist for the exact same treatment. This has turned Resident Specialty Programs into a financial intelligence test.

Why not invest in two more years of residency and earn twice as much money for about half the work and fewer night calls.

I’m pleased to report that most D.O.’s, Drs of Osteopathy, are General Practicioners and it is probably that D.O.’s will really take over the role of the General Practitioner Doctor.

Already Nurse Practitioners, N.P.’s, and Physicians Assistants, P.A.’s, are moving into General Practice but there still is a wide gap between what D.O.’s and M.D.’s can do and the rest including Chiropractors, D.C.’s, and Naturopaths, N.D.’s, can do. Some places still have Homeopaths and Faith healers.

We have the Medical Insurance Companies to thank or condemn for really screwing up the practice of medicine.

Hail to my fellow Osteopaths!

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Got a question or comment for Dr. Leveque?
Email him:
Newsroom@Salem-News.com

More information on the history of Dr. Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of WWII about his own experiences "from a foxhole".
Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier

If you are a World War II history buff, you don't want to miss it.

Watch for more streaming video question and answer segments about medical marijuana with Bonnie King and Dr. Phil Leveque.

Click on this link for other articles and video segments about PTSD and medical marijuana on Salem-News.com:
Dr. Leveque INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES




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Harumph January 8, 2009 9:48 am (Pacific time)

This excellent article reveals why letting "insurance" be your "medical provider" is such a bad idea. If you wrote the check to the doctor, you would be interested in what it cost you to get something done. We routinely call around to find the best price of prescription medicines. It's amazing. You can pay anywhere from $5 to $70 for pretty much the same thing. The reason a DO, DC, and a highly compensated specialist don't get paid the same for doing the same thing, is that we isolate the financial aspect of health care from the person who actually pays the bill... the patient. We hide that transaction from him with something called "insurance", which is used by over 90% of all patients to pay the bills for them. Instead, patients have insurance paid by someone else, and they expect nearly unlimited services. State laws require insurance pay for more and more items even if consumers don't ask for it. It's time to disentangle insurance from both employment and from "procedures". Consumers should be the ones who write the check, so they can make value judgements - and not encourage high compensation for someone just for having a "specialty", but doing nothing unique or high value. 90% of consumers would simply reject the notion of paying 3x the fee for the same service. Prices for procedures would start reflecting the value they are to the patient, not the artificial "price" which is nothing but a product of beaurocratic excess. Instead, insurance should be like car, home, or other freely marketed insurance - it is a paid risk-sharer. We make value judgements between deductibles and lower premiums for our cars. We shop around for what we consider good coverage for our home. And the cost is moderate. We don't expect our homeowner insurance to pay for new paint and mowing the lawn. Why on earth is health insurance expected to pay for your annual, or a normal visit for a flu shot? These are routine, and if you're not budgeting money for it, that's foolishness on your part, not a failure of "insurance". Let people start writing the checks for the procedures they want, and watch this disparity of "price" vs value dramatically diminish.

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