Your appointment is only 10 minutes long...

My doctor's office lets you make extended appointments if required.

This issue is a classic example of attempting to charge the maximum allowed in return for the minimum amount of effort. I worked as a Practice Administrator for several years for a large Healthcare System. I was always under pressure from above to insure that my docs saw 22 - 25 patients a day while delivering above-grade customer service. Impossible. Don't blame the providers, they hate it too. I finally left that job because I felt I was being forced to place the corporate need above the patient. I am now a Case Manager and advocate for the very patient that I delivered care to. Two of my tasks are Utilization Review and QA. I monitor my patient's claims data for compliance and am always amazed how a system can get away with charging for a Level IV Office Visit (30 min. 2-problem focus) for every single 10 minute patient they see. I don't blame the healthcare systems, however. PCP practices receive the lowest reimbursement in the feeding scale, and are the costliest to run. Healthcare reform needs to focus on recruiting more docs to Family Medicine and paying them better.