I am one of the doctors who “disappeared” for many of the reasons that Dr. Howard Zucker documents in “Where Have All the Doctors Gone?” [Cover Story, January/February] I was passionate about geriatrics and internal medicine but, as described, corporate medicine made patient care assembly-line labor. When I realized that the mandatory electronic records were so time-consuming that they squeezed out my patients, I quit.

Your story really struck a nerve. Here in Colorado, our physician-owned practices are being taken over by out-of-state corporations. I now have to call a stranger in Texas to make an appointment to see my primary care physician, if I can see her at all. If I don’t want to wait two months, I can see a physician assistant. Before that, it was a nurse practitioner. Half the staff has resigned or retired. Who knows what’s next?

Thank you for calling attention to the fine work performed by the small force of long-term-care ombudsmen operating in the U.S. [“Meet the Unsung Nursing Home Hero”]. Your article showed the inadequacy of a decades-old program. In this time of inadequate Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, a huge aging population and the corporatization of residential care, federal legislators need to prove their advocacy for quality elder care by updating and fully funding the programming.