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You have patients every day. Therefore you'll get paid every month. Even if you didn't, he still did not say he can't afford taking them.
He doesn't get paid the same amount every month if there is a huge lag in payment. And doctors don't conveniently get to delay paying their lease, staff, and utility companies by 8 months when payments aren't received until 8 months. They still have overhead just like any small business owner.
That's the part that I don't understand, and that isn't explained in the article.
30% Medicare - that's clear.
65% private insurance plans that peg their payments on Medicare's rates - is that like a Medicare Advantage plan? Or something else? And if he really means Medicare Advantage, does that mean that 95% of his patients are age 65 or older??
5% pay on their own - is that really direct payment from the patient, or does it include private insurance that isn't pegged to Medicare rates?
It means that private insurance companies base their payment on what Medicare pays. So an private insurance company will claim they pay 110% or 120% of Medicare. This is why Medicare reimbursement is important to physicians because private insurance bases their pay on Medicare.
The 5% are those patients who pay cash and are not insured.
Well, before we throw them a pity party, the AVERAGE income for Doctors is 104,000 to 206,000 per year. Dentists weigh in at 154K and some change. If you cant make it on that, you should re-look your business model. May 2008 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
Sure, there are specialists making a lot of money. But primary care or family physicians don't really make a lot, especially after insurance and overhead costs. But, they still had to go deeply in debt and give up many years of their life to get into those positions. They deserve to be well compensated. I don't blame them for dropping medicare patients. They have to draw the line somewhere.
Knowing that I'll one day need medicare, it scares me to see this trend. But I don't blame the docs. I blame the morons in DC.
Most specialists don't make a lot of money. The only doctors that really make a lot of money are those whose services are paid for in cash such as dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and infertility specialists. Even cardiologists and other high paying subspecialties are getting hit hard. General surgeons don't make a million dollars a year unless they are doing elective cash based procedures like stomach stapling and grastric bypass
Well, before we throw them a pity party, the AVERAGE income for Doctors is 104,000 to 206,000 per year. Dentists weigh in at 154K and some change. If you cant make it on that, you should re-look your business model. May 2008 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
Except you have to pay anywhere from 100K to 300K in loans to go to medical school (this is separate from college). You have to go to college for 4 years, medical school for another 4 years and then a minimum of 3 years of residency before you earn that 100K. And that's assuming you don't buy a practice on a loan or take a loan to buy a partnership into an existing practice. Overhead and expenses continue to increase but compensation decreases each year. They also have to pay 20K to 100K in malpractice fees each year.
I know realtors out of high school that make over 100K a year without any formal education. Even lawyers only have to go to school for 3 years after college. They don't have to do a residency.
Most specialists don't make a lot of money. The only doctors that really make a lot of money are those whose services are paid for in cash such as dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and infertility specialists. Even cardiologists and other high paying subspecialties are getting hit hard. General surgeons don't make a million dollars a year unless they are doing elective cash based procedures like stomach stapling and grastric bypass
Actually you sound like Rush in the sense that you aren't thinking about what you are writing. You are just looking at the bottom line without recognizing the physicians delay 12 years before they can earn that type of income. Are you willing to take 12 years off to earn 100K? Are you willing to work 80 hours a week, and endure a lot of stress to get to that when you can work in other fields and make that 100K with far less of a time commitment, stress and expenses?
Who exactly CHOSE for you to be a Doctor? WHY? SO you could get rich? No..of course not..be thankful you have a gift for healing.
But dont cry to me about you not making enough MONEY...Sorry it doesnt work. By the way, when the Insurance Reform is done..they are coming for you and the pharma. Hope you got those loans paid off by then.
Last edited by Bub; 03-09-2010 at 08:12 PM..
Reason: typo
Who exactly CHOSE for you to be a Doctor? WHY? SO you could get rich? No..of course not..be thankful you have a gift for healing.
But dont cry to me about you not making enough MONEY...Sorry it doesnt work. By the way, when the Insurance Reform is done..they are coming for you and the pharma. Hope you got those loans paid off by then.
Wrong! We don't have a gift for healting. We worked our a$#$3 off to serve people. We love what we do but don't act like we are just being handed money. Don't cry to me that we make too much money when you were too lazy to study hard in school. And health care reform is dead so you continue to feel sorry for yourself while you think I make too much money.
Who exactly CHOSE for you to be a Doctor? WHY? SO you could get rich? No..of course not..be thankful you have a gift for healing.
But dont cry to me about you not making enough MONEY...Sorry it doesnt work. By the way, when the Insurance Reform is done..they are coming for you and the pharma. Hope you got those loans paid off by then.
Bub, do you have any idea how long it takes to become a doctor? Do you think you would enjoy a job where you are on call 24/7 unless you have a covering physician? How many people will even bother to become doctors under a health care system run by government? Hope you like the new standard of care you will receive under a government run system.
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