Painting in the Mauritshuis Museum
Today, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, Congress passed the Medical Paperwork Reduction Act. It states that administrative requirements will be decreased to the minimum required for good medical care and billing. The Department of Labor estimated that this will reduce the average physicians paperwork by 1.7 hours a day, and that for primary care physicians, it will be closer to 3 hours a day. That in turn is expected to significantly decrease the primary care physician shortage, as they will be able to see more patients a day, and lessen unnecessary emergency room visits. Doctors’ morale is expected to improve with improved job satisfaction, leading to less early retirement, decreased physician suicide, and a lower divorce rate. Despite an increase in administrators and clerical staff seeking unemployment benefits, the Congressional Budget Office estimates a net benefit to the economy of 17.2 billion in the first year. “This is a special day. I never dreamed of seeing this,” said AMA spokesman Jonathan Dreckle, “not in a million years.”
