Time is money.
For these doctors and others, it is a key reason for increasing tension among doctors, medical groups and insurers. The doctors were told Aug. 30 by Northern California Medical Associates, the Santa Rosa medical company that employs the physicians and provides equipment and staff to the doctors' practices, that they would be terminated Sept. 30 because their operation was not profitable. That is, they each needed to see 36 patients a day, well above their average of 24. Specifically, they worried their ability to care for patients would be hurt by a month's worth of turmoil that included the departure of some office administrative staff. The doctors' complaints about tight-fisted insurers are not the first.