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Janardan D. Khandekar, MD
Evanston Hospital Evanston, III

JAMA. 1984;251(8):1027.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In a recent JAMA editorial, Dr Richard Egdahl¹ comments on physicians' fees. He points out that 20% of medical care dollars are at present spent on physician compensation. Further attempts should be made to determine the distribution of these fees among primary physicians, surgical services, internists performing invasive procedures, and supportive physicians such as radiologists or anesthesiologists. It would be instructive to find out whether a small number of physicians taking care of an even smaller percentage of care (percent of effort toward medical care) are responsible for a substantial portion of the physician's fees. The present compensation system promotes intervention and punishes careful decision making, since such a process often results in performing lesser procedures. The reasons for rising cost of medical care include unrealistic expectations of patients, aging of the population, salary increases of personnel, and advances in medical technology. On the other hand, . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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