‘Arbitrary and improper’

A Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) memorandum circular requiring all physicians to post their professional rates in their offices reveals a profound lack of understanding of the medical discipline and the role of doctors in an ethical society.

The fundamental fact is this: The practice of medicine is not primarily a business. What occurs in a medical clinic is not a commercial transaction. It is a deeply human interplay of core beliefs of both doctor and patient. It involves trust, hope, affinity and a mutual concern for the wellbeing of the other. It is not possible to quantify care or monetize empathy.

One must remember that enlightened individuals who  choose to become doctors do not devote the best years of their lives to accumulate material wealth. They seek a richer, far more personally satisfying reward than pesos and centavos.

The first woman who graduated valedictorian, summa cum laude, from Ateneo de Manila University was advised to go into banking and finance. She chose to go to the University of the Philippines, interned and completed her residency at the Philippine General Hospital where she spent most of her salary buying basic medical supplies for her patients. When she began her clinical practice in Laurel, Batangas, she was paid in  tilapia  and green mangoes.

The letter and spirit of the BIR memorandum circular reflect a seriously distorted perspective on the medical profession, influenced perhaps by the current scandals implicating politicians who, I submit, do not share the same values and principles commonly held by Filipino doctors.

The BIR should cast aside such a circular which is arbitrary, improper, and at the very least, distasteful.

—MARTIN D. BAUTISTA, MD, [email protected]