From what I've heard from doctors online, a large chunk of their time is basically spent just coaxing insurance. They waste time figuring out what they can and cannot bill, tailoring that to every patient, and constantly keeping records of everything. I think, for many doctors especially in small practices, treatment is a minority of their time.
Obviously, paying someone 300K a year to sit on a 1 hour peer to peer explaining why they think they should do a surgery is just bad business. But, we do it, and I think a lot.
Exactly. You can believe the "main cost driver in medical care is provider (nurse, doctor, etc.) wages" all the live long day, until you realize they too spend a lot of their time dealing with bureaucracy. The true cost of bureaucracy cannot be accounted for by simply tallying the number of bureaucrats and their salaries.
Obviously, paying someone 300K a year to sit on a 1 hour peer to peer explaining why they think they should do a surgery is just bad business. But, we do it, and I think a lot.