Comment Summary

A shortage of primary care physicians has been forecast because of increasingly higher medical school tuitions and relatively low earning potential for primary care doctors when compared to other medical and surgical specialties. Congress is considering shifting Medicare fee payments from surgical specialties to primary care. What is your view?
#	Response Date	Other (please specify)
1.	6/11/2008 2:09:00 PM	ALL MDs now cheated by low $;does Congress restrict how much food the US population can have?
2.	6/11/2008 6:20:00 PM	There soon is to be a severe shortage of practicing surgeons
3.	6/11/2008 7:15:00 PM	primary care physicians should receive increased payments at the expense of over-reimbursed specialties, like dermatology and radiology
4.	6/12/2008 12:58:00 AM	Primary care physicians are for the most part, in my community, traffic directors. It is the specialists that provide most of the treatment that eventually matters to sick patients. PCPs no longer admit to hospitals or even take care of marginally complicated problems. Most can be replaced by nurse practitioners, in my opinion, especially the PCP physician that is employed by a hospital or other health system
5.	6/12/2008 2:03:00 AM	get rid of the nurse practioners and PAs
6.	6/12/2008 4:37:00 AM	We should be able to balance bill patients with medicaid/medicare for our increased expenses
7.	6/12/2008 7:46:00 PM	"surgeons" is too broad. I think PC should have increased payments. I think some other MEDICAL and surgical specialties are overcompensated but not all.
8.	6/12/2008 7:53:00 PM	don't like the blanket term "surgeon" Overpayment occur in certain MEDICAL and surgical subspecialities, but not all.
9.	6/23/2008 12:39:00 PM	as usual a screwed up solution that will create more problems
10.	6/23/2008 1:04:00 PM	Gov't should stay out of MD education
11.	6/23/2008 3:00:00 PM	Surgeons in high cost states do not receive reimbursements that cover their overhead.
12.	6/24/2008 2:49:00 AM	primary care MD's need to do hospital work as well
13.	6/24/2008 7:54:00 AM	I don't care once again. All MDs will be having to give more and get less no matter what happens.