Abstract
California physicians' fees increased 2.2 percent in the first half of 1971, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Research and Planning. Nationally, physicians' fees increased at a faster rate of 3.4 percent during the same period.
This was the slowest semi-annual increase in the California Index since the final six months of 1968 when fees increased only 2.0 percent. A decline was also recorded in the rate of price increase for other goods and services in the first half of 1971. Nationally, the “all items” increase amounted to 2.0 percent, and the service component rose 2.1 percent.
Also included in this Report is special information on the charging patterns of physicians for office and hospital visits and data on physicians' fees in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Metropolitan Areas.
The California Physician Fee Index is a continuing survey conducted by the CMA Bureau of Research and Planning since 1962. The survey questionnaire which lists 26 medical, surgical, radiological, and laboratory procedures, elicits fee information from approximately 1,000 randomly selected physicians. Since June 1970, the procedures on the questionnaire have been listed according to the coding nomenclature used in the 1969 edition of the Relative Value Studies, published by the California Medical Association. Prior to that, the 1964 edition was used to delineate the procedure being surveyed.
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