JohnLynch Says: October 8th, 2012 at 4:20 pm How refreshing – an American medical specialist who isn’t genetically predisposed to whine about his lot in life. Congratulations! Specialists in the U.S., of course, make roughly double what their peers in other developed countries make and also about double what their primary care counterparts make here. Yes, they have more intensive training and higher malpractice costs, but these are captured by your overhead calculations that leave them with net incomes reflecting these lucrative disparities. I did a similar comparison in my book on Obamacare (ourhealthcaresucks/obamacare-the-good-the-bad-and-the-missing/) based on a 2007 survey that showed the following: All physicians $273,000 avg net income $240,000 at 100% Medicare rates Cardiologists $483,000 avg net income $450,000 at 100% Medicare rates Radiologists $488,000 avg net income $390,000 at 100% Medicare rates While no one likes to take a pay cut, it’s pretty clear that we’ll never get our medical spending under control unless and until these incomes are reduced. And it’s not just physician incomes, but their ripple effects. Every dollar of income to specialists generates $3-4 dollars in hospital or ancillary service costs. Until your colleagues accept responsibility for milking our fee-for-service system for all it’s worth, acknowledge that it’s no longer sustainable, and take leadership roles in reforming the corrupted RUC process that perpetuates these unsustainable physician payments, I’m afraid voices like yours will be lost in the wilderness. Please know, however, that many of us appreciate your willingness to stick your neck out and incur the wrath of far too many of your colleagues. If only more of them would follow your brave example
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:08:39 +0000
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