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Their faces were full of dread.  The speaker spoke about an impending catastrophy that required quick action and preparation, but even with such measures catastrophy might be inevitable.

Was this just hype, or was it prudence?  Was the threat real, or was it just spread by people who were intent on using this dire circumstance for their personal gain?  Nobody seemed to know, but as the speaker went on about statistics ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands, the faces of the listeners grew paler.

I raised my hand.  “What do you think the likelihood this will happen to us?  I pulled up a government website and they suggested that the hype about the danger may be overblown.”

He smiled.  “You are right, the immediate threat of the RAC may not be to ambulatory visits.  It really isn’t in their plan to go after docs like you.  But the MAC – the next committee to go after ‘fraud’ will probably not be as generous.  You’ve got to prepare.”

Something sounded very familiar.

This evening we had a seminar at a local hospital about the government’s plan to audit the records of doctors and hospitals to take back “fraud” in the system.  Everyone was terrified.  I don’t think any of these doctors had willfully engaged in trying to defraud the government; they all feel like I do – like the rules are so complex and unfair that there is almost no chance a doctor can escape mistakes.

“How worried should we be?” I asked him.  “Should we spend a lot of money and hire a bunch of consultants, or should we just try to do a good job?  Is this worth gray hair on our part?”

All of the other looked to the speaker, eager to hear the level of worry.

Rewind three hours.

“How worried should I be?”  The woman looked to me with a deep fear in her eyes as her son idly played behind the exam table.  “All of the hype on the news and the dire warnings?  People talk about pandemics, about hundreds of people in Mexico dying.  It’s terrifying.”

What is the level of fear?  I had read about the child dying in Texas, about the index case in mexico, and about the pandemic level being elevated to 5.  What does this all mean?  I hadn’t heard about pandemic levels until a few days ago.  This whole thing came out of the blue – things seemed normal last week and now Swine Flu is the first subject of every discussion today at work.

I am not saying that the threat doctors face is anywhere near the treat we face with a pandemic.  I’m not saying that going after fraud is wrong.  There certainly are some people stealing money from the government and they should be caught.

The situations were just amazingly similar.  The fear looked the same.  The questions were the same.

Everyone wants to know the level of worry.