Doctors Raise Fees 7% As Freeze Is Lifted
DoctorsÛª fees rose 7 percent, or three times the rate of inflation, from March 1985 to March 1986ÛÓthe year after the American Medical Association ended a voluntary freeze on physician rates, federal statistics show.</br></br>An AMA spokesman says the fee increases were justified by an 8 percent jump in the cost of running a doctorÛªs office during that time. But a consumer group labeled the rise in doctorsÛª fees as ÛÏgouging as usual.Û The AMA's freeze, which began in March 1984, succeeded in bringing down the rate of increase for doctorsÛª services, said Daniel Ginsburg, a U.S. Labor Department economist.</br></br>According to the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, doctorsÛª fees rose 7 percent in the 12 months after the AMA freeze ended in March 1985, compared with a</br></br>In establishing the voluntary freeze, the Chicago-based AMA urged the nation's 390,000 doctors to stop fee increases for a year to aid the nationÛªs economy.</br></br>Dr. James Todd, the AMAÛªs senior deputy executive vice president, defended the fee increases since the freeze ended. DoctorsÛª fees still lag behind costs because the cost of operating a medical office rose 8 percent during the year, he said, largely because of increases of as much as 50 percent for malpractice insurance.