Isn the Ad Hoc Committee really just an attempt to protect doctors and nurses economic interest?
There is no doubt that some doctors have abused reimbursement arrangements for personal profit. While this behavior was never condoned and was the subject of great debate within the medical community, it continued unabated for many years. We recognize that the failure of the medical profession to rein in these excesses created the opening which has allowed cost-cutters to assert increasing control of the health care system. Nurses too are being greatly affected by market driven imperatives that have led to the downsizing of hospital staff and in all of the other institutions in which they work. Just as all of us want to protect our jobs and believe our work has moral value, doctors and nurses as well as all others who work in health care clearly have an economic stake in any changes made to the health care system. But wanting to protect one’s job does not preclude wanting to protect one’s patients and the integrity of one’s profession. Our concern for our patients and the quality of th
