Doctors In Financial Trouble: Many Selling Their Practices & Switching Careers
- Thread starter ByLoSellHi
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Dr Cha, may I ask, do you think you'd have preferred the physician's lifestyle had you only had to work 40 hour weeks without being rushed, but only earned half as much, though without the insurance issues and perhaps with some nice tax breaks? And if your entire medical training had been free, would this have made a difference to you?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Believe me, when you're being operated on in the middle of the night, you do not want a "government employee" standing over you open abdomin.
As someone else said earlier, be careful of what you wish for. Some day you will have your wish most likely and I will guess that you won't be too happy about it.
Lastly, it seems as though many of the so-called "doctor haters" are basing their opinions off of personal anedotes from their past.
It is easy to remember when you or a loved on was hurt by an incompetent doctor or when you have a run-in with a very arrogant physician.
But you're probably forgetting the 100's of times that you or your loved ones were helped by a good doctor.
You have to remember that there are good and bad pilots, sales reps, farmers, restaurant managers, policemen, etc.
Doctors are no exception.
So funny to see all these socialist minded traders.
ha! us greedy capitalist traders will take your money with a smile on our face, then buy services from the best, highest priced doctors with the latest and greatest equipment developed by capitalistic companies, even if we have to travel to another country to escape the rationed shit-care Obama and the other political parasites have in store for us.
ha! us greedy capitalist traders will take your money with a smile on our face, then buy services from the best, highest priced doctors with the latest and greatest equipment developed by capitalistic companies, even if we have to travel to another country to escape the rationed shit-care Obama and the other political parasites have in store for us.
Here is an interesting article. He seems well educated too. 
http://www.gawande.com/bio.htm
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
"Beyond the basics, however, many physicians are remarkably oblivious to the financial implications of their decisions. They see their patients. They make their recommendations. They send out the bills. And, as long as the numbers come out all right at the end of each month, they put the money out of their minds.
Others think of the money as a means of improving what they do. They think about how to use the insurance money to maybe install electronic health records with colleagues, or provide easier phone and e-mail access, or offer expanded hours. They hire an extra nurse to monitor diabetic patients more closely, and to make sure that patients donât miss their mammograms and pap smears and colonoscopies.
Then there are the physicians who see their practice primarily as a revenue stream. They instruct their secretary to have patients who call with follow-up questions schedule an appointment, because insurers donât pay for phone calls, only office visits. They consider providing Botox injections for cash. They take a Doppler ultrasound course, buy a machine, and start doing their patientsâ scans themselves, so that the insurance payments go to them rather than to the hospital. They figure out ways to increase their high-margin work and decrease their low-margin work. This is a business, after all."
Someone mentioned in the thread about never hearing about any doctor who dies as a result of his patients.
My dad got infected from his patient and died when I was 17. This was before there were mandatory shots for whatever it was.
He also hated private practice and believed if you wanted to make a killing and you were smart, there were better ways of doing it than on someone else's life.
His way was to accept 3 year contracts with hospitals all over the world. That way he got to see the world and have a life and I have to say I had a great time growing up.
http://www.gawande.com/bio.htmhttp://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
"Beyond the basics, however, many physicians are remarkably oblivious to the financial implications of their decisions. They see their patients. They make their recommendations. They send out the bills. And, as long as the numbers come out all right at the end of each month, they put the money out of their minds.
Others think of the money as a means of improving what they do. They think about how to use the insurance money to maybe install electronic health records with colleagues, or provide easier phone and e-mail access, or offer expanded hours. They hire an extra nurse to monitor diabetic patients more closely, and to make sure that patients donât miss their mammograms and pap smears and colonoscopies.
Then there are the physicians who see their practice primarily as a revenue stream. They instruct their secretary to have patients who call with follow-up questions schedule an appointment, because insurers donât pay for phone calls, only office visits. They consider providing Botox injections for cash. They take a Doppler ultrasound course, buy a machine, and start doing their patientsâ scans themselves, so that the insurance payments go to them rather than to the hospital. They figure out ways to increase their high-margin work and decrease their low-margin work. This is a business, after all."
Someone mentioned in the thread about never hearing about any doctor who dies as a result of his patients.
My dad got infected from his patient and died when I was 17. This was before there were mandatory shots for whatever it was.
He also hated private practice and believed if you wanted to make a killing and you were smart, there were better ways of doing it than on someone else's life.
His way was to accept 3 year contracts with hospitals all over the world. That way he got to see the world and have a life and I have to say I had a great time growing up.
I could write 15 pages but what has barely been touched on in this thread is the fact that most of what DRs do simply does not work, and I believe most of them know it.
They were trained in a way that guides them to give the most medicine to the most people, regardless of whether or not it has ever worked.
Lipitor, for example is probably not needed by 90% of the victims of DRs, not to mention the fact that there are dozens of natural alternatives.
I am no DR hater, but I do believe about half of the DRs I have seen are among the worst people I have ever met, or ever will meet.
And to that DR who works 80 hours a week, maybe you do, but none of my DRs even work on Friday....your responses to various posters makes me believe you are delusional and have no credibility.
They were trained in a way that guides them to give the most medicine to the most people, regardless of whether or not it has ever worked.
Lipitor, for example is probably not needed by 90% of the victims of DRs, not to mention the fact that there are dozens of natural alternatives.
I am no DR hater, but I do believe about half of the DRs I have seen are among the worst people I have ever met, or ever will meet.
And to that DR who works 80 hours a week, maybe you do, but none of my DRs even work on Friday....your responses to various posters makes me believe you are delusional and have no credibility.
How about military doctors? They are government employees and provide excellent care.
I don't think you will get better health care because some private doctor is drooling, thinking about all the money he is going to make by operating on you or day dreaming about his new airplane. How many public service doctors are distracted by checking up on their investments in the middle of a medical appointment with you?
I don't think you will get better health care because some private doctor is drooling, thinking about all the money he is going to make by operating on you or day dreaming about his new airplane. How many public service doctors are distracted by checking up on their investments in the middle of a medical appointment with you?
http://www.allied-physicians.com/salary_surveys/physician-salaries.htm
This post made me laugh. Do not tell me one or two doctors you know. The average physician pay an be easily found on many website. Do not bring up insurance, etc. Those are average net income.
Do not bring up long hours either. For dermatologist, I know two, and it happens both of them only open 3.5 days a week, and no after hour calls.
Dentist, most of them I know only open 4 days a week.
There are many other specialist only work 4 days a week
I just don't know any doctor who works 80 hours a week. Maybe some (just some) have some weird hours, and some may be on call, but not 80 hours a week.
If you think doctors are underpaid, you are worrying too much, or you make too much. If you don't make a million a year, I guess you don't need to worry about doctors at all. Chances are they make more than you do.
This post made me laugh. Do not tell me one or two doctors you know. The average physician pay an be easily found on many website. Do not bring up insurance, etc. Those are average net income.
Do not bring up long hours either. For dermatologist, I know two, and it happens both of them only open 3.5 days a week, and no after hour calls.
Dentist, most of them I know only open 4 days a week.
There are many other specialist only work 4 days a week
I just don't know any doctor who works 80 hours a week. Maybe some (just some) have some weird hours, and some may be on call, but not 80 hours a week.
If you think doctors are underpaid, you are worrying too much, or you make too much. If you don't make a million a year, I guess you don't need to worry about doctors at all. Chances are they make more than you do.
One of the reasons why there are so many lawsuits against doctors is that they are distracted by their money obsession. Thinking about their stock portfolio, wondering if they closed on the 2nd vacation home. Spending more time thinking about how to code this patient for revenue maximization rather than thinking about whats ailing the patient.
Health care might actually get better as well as less expensive under a public option.
Health care might actually get better as well as less expensive under a public option.