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Doctors are actually making less money than they once did. They no longer run their own offices with nobody to answer to beside themselves.
The healthcare network system (aka the corporation) owns the Medical practices. Doctors practicing within that system are given a contract stating what they'll be paid per year. They're pushed for profit and are expected to send patients for X number of tests each year. If they don't meet their goals they can be subject to not having their contract renewed, or having a bad contract presented to them, or being moved to a less desirable position within the healthcare system. The systems want so many bodies in the door each day that doctors are working at a breakneck pace and working hours after close time. This is not only hard on the doctors, but support staff who might be salaried employees and working 50 plus hours a week.
The system pushes for tests so they can pay for equipment or justify purchasing new equipment.
One of my doctor friends said tradespeople are now making more money than internists.
If you want to know where the money goes, it's the healthcare network systems (the corporations) and insurance companies. They are in bed together the same way that Big Pharma and the FDA are, so don't think that insurance companies actually work toward containing costs, because they don't.
Also, the rush job doctors and staff give patients is partly due to the paperwork they're required to complete, as noted in this article I've posted previously:
“One (Medicare) report could take 108 Minutes to complete”.
Most MDs I know complete the 12 Medicare questions on an iPad as they execute an exam and no longer take long hand notes.
In the rare instance I have a need to see an MD, an admin completes the online claim and receives approval in seconds.
I did visit a Nurse Practitioner at CVS last year due to a persistent ear ache. Took her less than a minute to check out my ear. Took her more than 30 Minutes to complete the CVS online questionnaire. It was obvious CVS was attempting to build a medical record for me including past pregnancies. What does this have to do with a killer earache and my need for a generic Amoxicillin? My point here is that mileage varies.
It’s not Government or insurers that require time consuming data.
If you compare to the pay scale of third world countries, then yes.
But if you compare the salaries of American physicians with those in Europe, Australia and even in the Gulf Countries, you won't find much difference.
Doctor's are not only academically very smart people they also work VERY HARD to maintain the lifestyle that you see. They have A LOT of very heavy bills to pay. Trust me.
If you visit an internal medicine doctor in his office, you will probably pay $100 odd for the visit.
But if you visit the HOSPITAL then the bill becomes astronomical.
It's not the doctor's pay, it's cost of running the hospitals that increase the cost of medical bills and hence the insurance prices go high as well.
The handyman who updated my restroom, takes $500 a day. Many doctor's make the same
actually they are not that close
want to know A BIG REASON why its lower in those other countries.??? salaries.....a nurse in France(actually most of europe) makes about 1500-1800 a month(in us dollars)..that's 18-25,000 a year.....
meanwhile according to payscale.com the average Rn makes 45-72,000 in the usa……
FranceRegistered Nurse (RN) Salary (France)....average 22,000 euro (about 25,000 dollars us)
USARegistered Nurse (RN), Emergency Room Salary ....average 63,000 dollars
Professional Nurse Average Salary Income - International Comparison
“Primary care doctors in the United States, do tend to earn a lot more than their counterparts abroad. One 2011 study, which looked at doctor salaries from 2008, found that the average primary care doctor in France earns about $95,000, compared to the $186,000 that physicians net in the United States.”
Cutting doctors’ take-home pay would not really solve the American cost crisis. The total amount Americans pay their physicians collectively represents only about 20 percent of total national health spending. Of this total, close to half is absorbed by the physicians’ practice expenses, including malpractice premiums, but excluding the amortization of college and medical-school debt.
This makes the physicians’ collective take-home pay only about 10 percent of total national health spending. If we somehow managed to cut that take-home pay by, say, 20 percent, we would reduce total national health spending by only 2 percent, in return for a wholly demoralized medical profession to which we so often look to save our lives. It strikes me as a poor strategy.
Medical malpractice in France is based on a national no-fault compensation scheme versus an American medical malpractice system where OB/GYNs in some New York counties pay annual malpractice premiums of $227,899:
“One (Medicare) report could take 108 Minutes to complete”.
Most MDs I know complete the 12 Medicare questions on an iPad as they execute an exam and no longer take long hand notes.
In the rare instance I have a need to see an MD, an admin completes the online claim and receives approval in seconds.
I did visit a Nurse Practitioner at CVS last year due to a persistent ear ache. Took her less than a minute to check out my ear. Took her more than 30 Minutes to complete the CVS online questionnaire. It was obvious CVS was attempting to build a medical record for me including past pregnancies. What does this have to do with a killer earache and my need for a generic Amoxicillin? My point here is that mileage varies.
It’s not Government or insurers that require time consuming data.
Good lord, it was a good thing I was sitting down for that.
Did you see the questionnaire or ask to know what was on it? Just curious.
You know what someone is worth? Whatever someone is will to pay them. By definition, they aren't overpaid, because people keep paying them.
I'd normally agree, but it's different in the medical world.
When we go to the doctor, there is never a discussion of prices. No one even knows how much things are going to cost. You're expected to have insurance. Then Doctors name whatever price they want (which is always ridiculously inflated) and the insurance company has to pay for it. That's why medical prices are so high, they can charge whatever they want.
A normal free market system wouldn't allow for such high prices. If people chose who to go to based on prices that they knew in advance, it wouldn't be this bad.
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