TY  - JOUR
T1  - ASsignment of disability ratings
AU  - Phillips CD
Y1  - 1979/04/13
N1  - 10.1001/jama.1979.03290410016015
JO  - JAMA
SP  - 1576
EP  - 1576
VL  - 241
IS  - 15
N2  - 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,
SN  - 0098-7484
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.1979.03290410016015
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1979.03290410016015
ER  -