So what happened to the other 75% of reps? Some of them are now working for hospitals to make sales calls on doctors. Why? The hospitals want those docs, usually surgeons, to send their patients to that facility. Uh oh, this may be a problem. Reps are trained well. They are usually aesthetically pleasing (hospitals aren’t stupid) and they go after the doctors with the best insured patients. They mine data just like the drug companies did to find the target doctors. Read this article in the USA Today for more info. I understand why hospitals are doing this but there is something here that just doesn’t sit right with me. I sure wish they would reinvest their money into nurses so that their patient load is less instead of paying beautiful looking reps to flirt with doctors. Seems wrong.It seems wrong, because to doctors, it is wrong.
But we're not talking about patient care here. We're talking about market consolidation and competition for the few remaining revenue sources out there as overbuilt hospitals race to feed the health care and consulting beasts that financially cannibalize the very people they claim to serve.
-Wes
1 comment:
I can just never see myself, as a physician, working for those type entities. As an employee, I don't feel that patient advocacy keeps it #1 position in my practice. That is just my humble opinion, YMMV.
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