| Ragnar Suomi 2004-10-05, 7:10 pm |
| Optometrists can justifiably receive up to 20% of the surgical fee for
co-managing the procedure, however there is a much bigger issue.
People get way too concerned about money when it comes to surgery.
Consider yourself lucky if you can find skilled doctors who are not
running you through a mill, have good judgement, and don't lie, or
mislead you to affect your thinking.
As is clearly evident in this newsgroup, reality just isn't good
enough for the anti-lasik crowd. They have to resort to sleazy
tactics to make any impact on people's thinking. Thankfully, nobody
seems to be buying the garbage lately.
On 4 Oct 2004 22:55:36 -0700, irecall911@yahoo.com (joyceb) wrote:
>Glenn -- was just wondering if in fact, as has been alleged so
>colorfully by "Splashy", optometrists have financial incentives to
>refer patients to eye doctors for laser surgery. If so, how much of
>an incentive?
>
>Considering human nature, I tend to think that in any situation
>(including the above), financial incentive has an effect on behavior,
>and the degree of incentive can be correlated to the degree of
>behavioral modification. For instance, salesmen on commission are
>more motivated to sell than salesmen on salary. Most people, when
>buying a car, are aware of the financial incentive, and "caveat
>emptor" is the rule of the day.
>
>If optometrists do have a financial incentive, do you think most
>people who are referred to a surgeon are aware of this? If not, do
>you think that as a matter of policy, they should be made aware?
>
>Please note that I am not alleging anything bad about optometrists.
>Optometrists and doctors are flesh-and-blood, just like the rest of
>us, and display the same general behavioral characteristics as those
>who are not.
|