Doctors spend almost as much time on the subtleties of billing codes as we do on patient care. Primary care in particular is adversely affected by a fee-for-service system that stifles innovative approaches to managing complex chronic and preventive care in favor of those services insurance companies and Medicare will reimburse.
John J. Frey III, Madison, Wis. The writer, a doctor, is a professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.