Doctors In Financial Trouble: Many Selling Their Practices & Switching Careers

B

ByLoSellHi

To think I was 2 years shy of attending med school, before a tragic family event changed the trajectory of my career path.

My buddy's father is an oncologist, is burned out, hates medicine, and went so far as to strongly discourage his son from becoming a physician.

It all falls into place after a while.


- "But financial considerations have never been as prominent as they are today, probably because so many hospitals and doctors, especially in large metropolitan areas, are in financial trouble. More and more doctors are trying to sell their practices, or are negotiating with hospitals for jobs, equipment or financial aid.

At hospitals, uncompensated care is increasing as patients suffering from the economic downturn lose health insurance. Admissions and elective procedures — big moneymakers — are declining. Hospitals are cutting administrative costs, staff and services.

“More and more you’ll see people in medicine get M.B.A.’s,” a doctor told me at a seminar, in a prediction borne out in my experience. “We are in a total crisis, and I don’t know the answer.”'-

A Doctor by Choice, a Businessman by Necessity
By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D.
Published: July 6, 2009

To meet the expenses of my growing family, I recently started moonlighting at a private medical practice in Queens. On Saturday mornings, I drive past Chinese takeout places and storefronts advertising cheap divorces to a white-shingled office building in a middle-class neighborhood...

-continued-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/health/07essa.html?em
 
Quote from ByLoSellHi:

To think I was 2 years shy of attending med school, before a tragic family event changed the trajectory of my career path.

My buddy's father is an oncologist, is burned out, hates medicine, and went so far as to strongly discourage his son from becoming a physician.

It all falls into place after a while.


- "But financial considerations have never been as prominent as they are today, probably because so many hospitals and doctors, especially in large metropolitan areas, are in financial trouble. More and more doctors are trying to sell their practices, or are negotiating with hospitals for jobs, equipment or financial aid.

At hospitals, uncompensated care is increasing as patients suffering from the economic downturn lose health insurance. Admissions and elective procedures — big moneymakers — are declining. Hospitals are cutting administrative costs, staff and services.

“More and more you’ll see people in medicine get M.B.A.’s,” a doctor told me at a seminar, in a prediction borne out in my experience. “We are in a total crisis, and I don’t know the answer.”'-

A Doctor by Choice, a Businessman by Necessity
By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D.
Published: July 6, 2009

To meet the expenses of my growing family, I recently started moonlighting at a private medical practice in Queens. On Saturday mornings, I drive past Chinese takeout places and storefronts advertising cheap divorces to a white-shingled office building in a middle-class neighborhood...

-continued-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/health/07essa.html?em
More...


dude, you are the most negative articulate educated person i ever come across on the web.

my fatherinlaw is a 68 year old gastroenterologist specialist who also speaks of how bad things are; yet vacations constantly, spends thousands in restaurants, essentially living quite well for decades. all jobs can "stink". there are two sides to every story.

just be happy for a little while, you might like it.
 
Quote from ByLoSellHi:

To think I was 2 years shy of attending med school, before a tragic family event changed the trajectory of my career path.

My buddy's father is an oncologist, is burned out, hates medicine, and went so far as to strongly discourage his son from becoming a physician.

It all falls into place after a while.


- "But financial considerations have never been as prominent as they are today, probably because so many hospitals and doctors, especially in large metropolitan areas, are in financial trouble. More and more doctors are trying to sell their practices, or are negotiating with hospitals for jobs, equipment or financial aid.

At hospitals, uncompensated care is increasing as patients suffering from the economic downturn lose health insurance. Admissions and elective procedures — big moneymakers — are declining. Hospitals are cutting administrative costs, staff and services.

“More and more you’ll see people in medicine get M.B.A.’s,” a doctor told me at a seminar, in a prediction borne out in my experience. “We are in a total crisis, and I don’t know the answer.”'-

A Doctor by Choice, a Businessman by Necessity
By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D.
Published: July 6, 2009

To meet the expenses of my growing family, I recently started moonlighting at a private medical practice in Queens. On Saturday mornings, I drive past Chinese takeout places and storefronts advertising cheap divorces to a white-shingled office building in a middle-class neighborhood...

-continued-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/health/07essa.html?em
More...

Funny. i live in a mountian resort community. around me are doctors vacation homes worth 400 to 600k that get used 5 or 6 weekends a year and otherwise sit empty. some doctors seem to be doing ok.
 
Quote from domestic:

dude, you are the most negative articulate educated person i ever come across on the web.

my fatherinlaw is a 68 year old gastroenterologist specialist who also speaks of how bad things are; yet vacations constantly, spends thousands in restaurants, essentially living quite well for decades. all jobs can "stink". there are two sides to every story.

just be happy for a little while, you might like it.
More...

Dude, you're an ignorant fool.

Your daddy with his established practice is not the norm of the industry. I kinda figured the fact that he is 68 years old would have tipped you off, but obviously you lack the brain power to come to that conclusion.
The article is on point and this has been happening for the last few years to the extreme. Costs of starting up and running a private practice have gone through the roof.
There is not money in medicine like there used to be back in the 1990s and prior. Unless you selling Big Pharma crack.
 
Quote from Anaconda:

Dude, you're an ignorant fool.

Your daddy with his established practice is not the norm of the industry. I kinda figured the fact that he is 68 years old would have tipped you off, but obviously you lack the brain power to come to that conclusion.
The article is on point and this has been happening for the last few years to the extreme. Costs of starting up and running a private practice have gone through the roof.
There is not money in medicine like there used to be back in the 1990s and prior. Unless you selling Big Pharma crack.
More...

dumbass, i said "father in law". i am a trader, not a doctor. i am only in the know of what he tells me at the dinner table and per his descriptions much money is still there; for young and old docs.

angry immature losers like you bring nothing to the table. good luck in continued ruining ET.
 
There very notion that someone is arguing that doctors are in financial trouble is laughable to me. Most people would KILL to make a what a doctor makes in a year. I can't speak for the USA, but in Ontario, doctors are very much in demand and make a very great living doing it.
 
It's threads like this that show how little people know, and how much they think they know. You wouldn't believe the cost of overhead in private practice, even for well established practices. Within the past few years it has become almost impossible for private practices to stay in business, and soon there will be none left. A small practice can bring in 1 - 1.5 million a year, and the Doctor might see 100-150k of that. And that is not to mention the 12-14 hour days they are working, and on top of it taxes, not even mentioning 40k a year in malpractice. It is the ignorance of people that are always blaming the doctors, sueing them if a person has a heart attack at 50, listening to politicians go on and on about things they have no idea about. The politics in medicine are far beyond other industries, and you wont really know the truth unless you are in the business.
 
My country club is filled w/docs. All of them complain about all these things constantly, yet none of them are giving up the club, their $60K cars, their shore houses, or their 2-3 times/year vacation to some exotic locale.
 
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