re: Doctors hate their jobs (and it's not because of obamacare)

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Welcome to what most people feel about their job

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I have been in the medical field for about 8 years now and can tell you without a doubt that healthcare has recently and will continue to go down the shitter. Hospital administration has now basically forced the physicians to do a full work up on a patient that shows up to the ER for sniffles for monetary purposes. How do you think patients with no job and/or no health insurance pay for all this expensive testing? It's passed on to the taxpayer and it will absolutely continue to get worse.

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At the same time, salaries haven't kept pace with doctors' expectations. In 1970, the average inflation-adjusted income of general practitioners was $185,000. In 2010, it was $161,000, despite a near doubling of the number of patients that doctors see a day.

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Meanwhile, dentists are making that working 32 hours a week, seeing 8-10 patients a day.

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Because most are gutless pussies that grew up being hall monitors and are more than happy to kiss administration's arse in return for a pat on the back. I take zero shite from any of them. You give me shite...I shut you out. When you have by far the largest practice in a given area, this can have a huge impact. If only I could get others to follow suit. But if anybody has ever seen the clusterfrick it becomes when a bunch of docs get together, you'd understand why we don't band together. Too many ego's. And the least successful ones seem to be the ones that know everything. Piss on 'em. After years of not listening too me cause I was the youngster, now they wanna partner with me and/or work for me.

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Dentists fought the powers that be. When the insurance companies came in with the crappy PPO/HMO/ reduced fee-for-service plans, the majority of dentists said "no." The majority of dental insurance is the basic 80/20 type (50/50 for major work). And many still make the patient pay up front and let the insurance reimburse, or at least make you pay your portion up front.

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Dentists fought the powers that be. When the insurance companies came in with the crappy PPO/HMO/ reduced fee-for-service plans, the majority of dentists said "no." The majority of dental insurance is the basic 80/20 type (50/50 for major work). And many still make the patient pay up front and let the insurance reimburse, or at least make you pay your portion up front.

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True! We were sold down the river by our own years before I even graduated high school. It's still a great job and I enjoy it, but it's sickening to see what we have done to ourselves because of ego and lack of a backbone. Our course, that's also why <15% of physicians are in the AMA. And it we got our money up front like dentists do, it'd be cheaper for the pt and more lucrative for us. However, taking the pt out of the pay loop has allowed for the astronomical charges you see now. They don't give a shite after their copay or deductible. The whole system is fricked. Instead of beating my head against the wall, I just play the game and reap the rewards. The money is still there and the average incomes they show are probably for teaching positions and employeed physicians. I pay my NP's close to what the show for primary care. Most doc's (like any other field) just like to bitch.

My partner, who is 57, says he's never seen a time where it has been easier to make money in FP than it is now. Of course, he admits he wouldn't have it I didn't teach him proper coding and streamline the business and expenses. He now makes more than twice what he was making when I started, works 3.5-4 days/week, no hospital, leaves by 3-3:30 everyday, and is a hell of a lot happier than he was 11 years ago. The key is being flexible and adapting to the changing environment around you. He's still against mid-levels, but it's his loss. The two I've added have made my life much easier and have been extremely profitable. Not to mention they are hot. And the next one I'm gonna hire is even hotter.

So you youngsters considering FP should get with a doc that's doing it and excelling. I know many that make $400k and up. Just look for the small town offices with full parking lots. And no, it's not just from writing pain pills. Country folks still like country docs and their insurance pays the same as everywhere else. Not to mention your cash pays are much more likely to pay you or barter with you in a small town.

Roughly 60% of my overhead is directly due to insurance filing/collecting/PA's/pre-certs etc. If not more!!! Hell half of my nurses time is spent taking care of bullshite related to test/referrals/etc. I'm about to tell my specialists to start doing more of this shite or lose my referrals. The last one to tell me to frick off came crawling back willing to do whatever the hell I asked, with a smile and dance, after his volume and income dropped 50% last year. I wish like hell other primary care docs would realize the pull we have and start exerting it. As much influence as I have locally, it doesn't mean jack shite in the grand scheme of things.

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everybody gets a CT!

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i was in ER last night. No CT

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Ya sounds nice but each one of those animals comes in with a person attached to them.

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And a wallet attached to that person. Straight cash for service like dentist. The prices a vet charges are about what docs could charge for people. If all paid cash or if their COULD be a two tier pay system/schedule.

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Dentist know what's up!

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I have guitar lessons to a dentist. He's 33 years old and married to a hottie (no pics). After dental school, he chose to go the rural route instead of working in a practice near Birmingham, AL. He expected to struggle because he stereotyped people in the country as not caring about their teeth.


Rural is definitely the way to go. You can either go to an urban area and compete with 100+ other docs\dentists..


or..

You can go to a rural area and have no competition and rake in the money. You can't charge as much as the other guys but when you have 5x as many patients it doesn't really matter.

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This guy knows what time it is!

And I could add that the overhead costs are much much less, especially real estate and staff. And no traffic to bitch about.