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Rural health care is certainly a problem, but to put these Texas statistics into perspective, the population of Kenedy County, Texas in the southeastern part of the state, is 414. I'm sure that is the case with many of the counties out in West Texas. Yes, it's an issue, but no doctor is going to live in a county with 414 people.
Why? The national average is a doctor for every 390 people.
If practically one-half of Texas's counties have shortages of primary medical care, Texas doesn't sound like such a great place to live after all. I think we non-Texans have been snookered by the Texans all these years.
then feel free to not move here. you definitely shouldn't visit either, otherwise you might notice most of these areas you're suddenly so concerned about are literally nothing but dirt, grass, and a couple trees. I'm sure people are aware that they might not have a doctor near them when they move to an area with nobody else living in it..
sometimes when you're reaching for straws you just end up looking uninformed
Why? The national average is a doctor for every 390 people.
Have you ever been to an area like that? Let me describe it to you if you're driving down the road. You're on a narrow two lane road that is straight... for as far as the eye can see. You look to the left... nothing. You look to the right...nothing. Drive 30 miles... still nothing. No electric of phone poles, nothing.
Then you see glimmer on the horizon... oooh a sign of life it's headlights of an approaching vehicle. You going about 90 or 100 MPH and the other guy approaching you is going the same speed. You might go by each other 5 or 10 minutes later.
Have you ever driven across Texas? It's mostly wasteland out there.
There are stretches of I-10 that go 100 miles between EXITS. I really never understood why Texans loved Texas so much, I found Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma to all be nicer and prettier than Texas. Texas really only has one thing going for it: Women. Texan girls are gorgeous, so that's probably why Texans love their state so much.
Go to the Nasa Hooters in Houston or any Dallas area Hooters and you'll see how superior their Hooters girls are than any other part of the country. Being a heterosexual guy driving around the US solo, I got to know the Hooters girls throughout the US pretty well, the only states that could compare were Arizona and Florida, even my home state of California doesn't compare.
Well then..........If you have good Hooters girls, who the hell needs a doctor!
WE have a lack of primary care doctors in El Paso. That does not mean that patients do not have adequate access to internists it only means that we don't have that many primary care doctors in El Paso. Zip codes south of I10 are federally designated as HPSAs (Health Professional Shortage Areas). The patients in these areas are still within easy distance to medical care.
Last edited by pommysmommy; 09-10-2009 at 06:58 AM..
Location: Midessa, Texas Home Yangzhou, Jiangsu temporarily
1,506 posts, read 4,280,302 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hawkeye2009
Well then..........If you have good Hooters girls, who the hell needs a doctor!
I think Pug Life has a good point. What do we do about HGSAs ( Hooter Girl Shortage Area ) in rural counties? We need some kind of federal program to insure that each county has at least one attractive Hooter Girl. Think of the children that are being deprived.
Why? The national average is a doctor for every 390 people.
Do you have a link for that? Or any information on how it would translate to a couple of thousand square mile area with 390 residents?
A new pediatrician who saw my daughter told me she would need 2,000 patients to stay busy. Obviously they're not all sick all the time--many only see the doctor once or twice a year. A doctor in an area serving a total of 390 people would probably see two patients a day.
Let me educate you peeps on the realities of recruiting a physician. Most of those counties without one have per capita incomes in Texas less than 20,000 a year for a family of four. If primary care is paying out even 100,000 per year they won't pay anything to keep the doctor in town. I know, I am a FP physician. I have talked to dozens of small towns. Typically, they want you to sign on for 3-5 years and they give you one year of a little money and cut you loose to make it on your own the other 4 years. Most will demand you are board certified in your specialty which is another cost all its own and they are paying you nothing. You fail because it has been tried in that town many times and the hospital knows you cannot make it from previous docs who left for the same reason. Then, when you try to leave, they hold your feet to the fire and want you to pay for the 4 years you did not serve in the contract at the rate they would have paid out for the first year. It is called an income guarantee contract and is a common trap for docs in small town offers. It amounts to a loan for the first year and you get hammered trying to stay the other 4 years mainly because patients are Medicaid or Medicare and that pays nothing to begin with. Then, you have patients that take up 2-3 hours each for an office visit that pays about 56.00 for Medicare, so you cannot even pay your light bill or staff because you see about 8-10 patients a day maximum in 8 hours. If three people work there on your staff at 10.00/hour, that is 240.00 a day in staff bills. If you made 500.00 that day,you have to pay utilities, rent, malpractice, and insurances out of that money as well. It all adds up to a loss and bankruptcy. So now you know why you cannot give raises to the staff or pay increases in costs of operations. You could have 10 millionaries on a hospital board but not one of them would donate even a dollar to keep a doctor in town. Not only are they tightfisted with their money, but they use your contract against you to collect the 400,000 you would owe them after you go broke and that pays hospital salaries and overhead at the expense of the physician who is then destroyed financially. Every small town hospital in Texas has tried this and most now sit empty without admissions because of past greed, their reputations well known to every doctor in the area and to every medical student as the hospital gets badmouthed over and over from area doctors in other towns. Only 10 percent of doctors see Medicare patients in Texas now. Medicare is due to cut fees by 30 percent in January 2012. Guess what will happen. Fewer docs to see Medicare patients and then you will see them in the ER sitting there all day. That does not even begin to touch Obamacare and what effect it will have on Medicare and Medicaid. If you think this is years away, I already know patients driving 50-100 miles because no doctor will see them as Medicare or Medicaid. Why ? Because once you hit about 10 percent Medicare/Medicaid volume in your practice you may not survive. Why is this ? Because private insurances look at Medicare and copy Medicare payouts and restrictions. They even make you pay money back to them if they deny your claim and it happens every day, just like Medicare takes funds back every day. Since you have a contract with an insurance company, you cannot do anything about it.
This is why you are staring at a future of cash or credit cards only at a walk in clinic, if you can find one. It is happening already since traditional FP practices are refusing to see patients once their appointments are filled. You wait weeks to get seen, not just days.
Last edited by jthutmd; 09-16-2011 at 01:16 AM..
Reason: add on
Why do so many assume that long-distance travel and/or packing up and moving are trivial concerns?
Millions of Americans throughout our history have packed up and moved to improve wahtever lot in their lives need improving.
It's not like you force DRs to move to an area just because a small group of people choose to live there.
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