The most likely thing to get messed up by a doctor is your bill. We are not trained in most cases to run a business, but of course, we do after we leave school. I took additional business courses in medical school, so I know my practice well, and monitor that aspect closely. However, most doctors have no idea what the bill is for the services they render. That is usually handled by other people.
My mechanic calls me and suggests that it is time for an oil change or a tune-up (I do these myself, by the way, and have never had him do them), my dentist calls to tell me it is time for a cleaning and check-up too. Sure she was trying to get business, that is her livelihood. I know nothing about the quality of your physician, and I cannot defend what you say were misdiagnoses, but if you thought she was so bad, why did you keep going back?? Sometimes patients don't remember things very clearly, though. Just yesterday I saw a patient that complained that I had referred her to a specialist in blood disorders and insists I told her she had leukemia, which she did not have. That is, of course, preposterous because there is no way on the limited data I get as a Primary Care that I could have given her that diagnosis. I also distinctly remember the conversation in which I suggested the consult. She wanted to know why I wanted to refer her there. I replied that the most concerning thing that she could have was leukemia, but it could be normal for her, and it needs to be checked out further. (I would never tell someone they have leukemia, I'm not a Hematologist or Oncologist) The more you describe this situation, the more it sounds like your view is rather self-serving and narrow-minded.
As a Primary Care doctor, I did not choose the way things are billed. This is the system I inherited when I became a doctor, and it was set by politicians and bureaucrats, not doctors. Do we have to bill this way? Sure, it is the way we get paid for our job. I hate it. And, by the way, many other doctors (most, I think) do too. The system is supposed to be designed (again, not by doctors) to reimburse physicians more money for more work done, but some patients demand more time for a physical than others, and the reimbursement is the same. The rules say (rules, once again not designed by the physician, and that this physician was following) that if there is an acute complaint in addition to a well patient visit, as there was in this case, that the physician should submit an additional charge. Perhaps physicians should get reimbursed a set dollar amount for each problem addressed, and get paid according to a set amount based on how much is determined he should make for addressing that problem, the same way a mechanic gets reimbursed so much for a tune-up, so much for an oil change, so much for changing the alternator, etc., and gets paid for each job he does. That way, if a patient comes in for high blood pressure, kidney disease, cholesterol issues, and diabetes, the physician would get paid a separate fee for addressing each of these. That would certainly have satisfied this patient since they would have known that if they gave the extra complaint to the doctor that it would include an extra charge. Many Primary Care Physicians are going to the Concierge Medicine model, where patients pay a fee (usually $1500 per year) to be a patient of the physician, then they get a certain amount of time with the physician as dictated by his policies.
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