RT Journal
A1 Phillips CD
T1 ASsignment of disability ratings
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1979
FD April 13
VO 241
IS 15
SP 1576
OP 1576
DO 10.1001/jama.1979.03290410016015
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1979.03290410016015
AB To the Editor.— 
    With the high cost of medical care in the United States being on the minds of all responsible citizens, the cost of medical disability must loom as a specter of increasing concern. From the vantage point of an orthopedic surgeon, I would like to bring to attention an aspect of medical costs that may be related to a guilt feeling on the part of a patient's surgeon.I refer to a situation where a patient sustains work-related back ailments that are operated on by a well-intentioned surgeon. The physician later finds that the patient is no better—perhaps even worse. This unhappy revelation provokes a feeling of guilt, because the patient has undergone a painful, major operation without the expected improvement. To compound the guilt, the surgeon has been well compensated for the surgical exercise.When the surgeon is asked to assign a disability rating for this patient,