Many things contribute to the cost of a product, just ask any manufacturer. In medicine, much of that cost is routinely and wrongly attributed to the high price of malpractice insurance. Although not insignificant, it is roughly only about two (2) percent of the actual cost of doing medicine.

In my practice, it is easy to see where the majority of the true burden lies. It is in the costs of administration. I am a member of a small, four physician practice that employs about 20 people.

According to the MGMA (Medical Group Managers Association), every physician today employs an average of 4.5 people to handle the requirements mandated by the federal government and third party insurance companies. Wow!

Each of those employees have mandated benefits that are required by the state and federal governments and those must also be paid for by the employer. In addition, each employee has a health insurance package that adds significantly to our overhead costs as well.

The latest burden that is mandated by ObamaCare but paid for by the physician (and subsequently you as a consumer) is the EMR (Electronic Medical record). Our parent company purchased hundreds of computers and spent millions of dollars on the operating system to meet that single requirement alone.

 So don’t blame the physician when you pay your bill. You asked for change. You now have change.