Seen in the New York Times today: A Sports Turnaround: the Team Doctors Now Pay the Team.
Apparently there's a new trend in player health care: "In an upside-down scenario spawned by an increasingly competitive health-care market, hospitals and medical practices — eager for any promotional advantage — have begun bidding to pay pro teams as much as $1.5 million annually for the right to treat their high-salaried players."
It's a lengthy article that tries to cover the practice from both sides. On the surface, the teams are probably correct when they say that their players' quality of care is not affected. That's not the real issue, though.
The article claims, and again I'm sure they're right, medical institutions gain paying customers and prestige by being known as 'The official medical group of [insert favorite NFL/NBA/MLB team here]'. "Sports industry experts say that teams for years have had official soft drinks, official beers and official pickup trucks, so why not official health-care providers?" says the article.
I think it demeans the practice of medicine to equate a doctor with a hot dog. But even more than whether or not it's dignified, I find the concept disturbing on an ethical level. We're talking about people in pain, potentially with career threatening injuries. Sponsorship deals should not be a part of the treatment equation.
Years ago, when I was still active in the theater, I had an accident and broke one of my toes. It was three weeks before opening night for a show I was in, and I needed to get my foot fixed, fast and right. I ended up seeing a doctor who, my mother informed me, treated not only members of the New York Mets but also the New York City Ballet. I was impressed, and rightfully so. When I told the doctor that I needed to dance onstage in three weeks, she knew how to help me; in fact, right before opening night I took my dance shoes to her office and she rewrapped my bandaged foot so it would fit inside the shoe.
What impressed me, though, was that those star athletes and dancers had chosen to go to this podiatrist. I would have felt differently if I'd known that the doctor had paid a big fee to the Mets and that the players were contractually obligated to go there. I suppose I can't blame people for thinking that "the players go there, so it must be good". After all, I did too. But that was then.
