I just finished having a nice conversation with a friend. His son is a criminal attorney fresh in private practice. His clients typically pay cash. What I found interesting was the following:
While this attorney is not a public defender, NY State will send him clients that need defense and pay him $200 per hour.
$200 per hour!
Now let's see how that compares to NY State's Medicaid reimbursement for physicians. I just treated a man with suspected Fournier's Gangrene, a life-threatening infection that requires many hours of intervention by multiple highly skilled and trained medical personnel. I spent 4 hours yesterday—in-total—working on this patient. I will be lucky if I get $100 in reimbursement from Medicaid.
So that is where NY State's priorities are.
The IU
