Re: Hard times for an MD friend

[Guest guest]

Ann, I just had a similar experience with the Internist down the hall from me. He used to be my wifes Doc before our group Insurance had us switch to a non caring larger group practice who seems to tolerate HMOs better. Any way, I ran into the new Internist who is just out of residency and does no procedures in his office, just prescribes meds. His first year malpractice is $5000, and he is scratching to make a living with Medicare and Senior HMOs. The older guy who just mostly retired told me "Ron you don't realize how good you have it-most people don't expect Insurance to pay the Chiropractor, but they want to see me for nothing".Just think guys and gals, of all those patients who cheerfully come and pay you $30-40 bucks cash for 10 minutes of your time. I think we are jaundiced about the awesome power we have in our hands, and how magnificent a profession we have compared to the average working stiff. Ron JohansenDC, SE Portland

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 17:51:46 -0800 "Ann" <anngoldeen@...> writes:

We tend to moan amongst ourselves how bad we have it, so picked on, etc. One of my friends, the one I have been trying to go into practice with, has decided to quit practicing in the next 2 months. Why? Business is down and he doesn't want to renew his malpractice insurance of $18,000 per year. When he told me the amount I thought he said $1,800. This guy is an internist- not the most risky kind of medicine. His office has a terrible time collecting from insurance companies. They gave up on medicare, work comp and personal injury and don't take those patients at all. The rest of the bozos in his office are greedy jerks, but this guy isn't. It is a shame that they will continue on providing LOUSY care in our community and the compassionate good listener who refers to all kinds of non traditional healers is leaving.

Seeing him suffer reminds me that I don't have it too bad. Happy New Year.

Ann Goldeen, Astoria

OregonDCs rules:1. Keep correspondence professional; the purpose of the listserve is to foster communication and collegiality. No personal attacks on listserve members will be tolerated.2. Always sign your e-mails with your first and last name.3. The listserve is not secure; your e-mail could end up anywhere. However, it is against the rules of the listserve to copy, print, forward, or otherwise distribute correspondence written by another member without his or her consent, unless all personal identifiers have been removed.

[Guest guest]

Cool post folks...thanks Ann and Ron!

Vern Saboe, DC

Albany

Re: Hard times for an MD friend

Ann, I just had a similar experience with the Internist down the hall from me. He used to be my wifes Doc before our group Insurance had us switch to a non caring larger group practice who seems to tolerate HMOs better. Any way, I ran into the new Internist who is just out of residency and does no procedures in his office, just prescribes meds. His first year malpractice is $5000, and he is scratching to make a living with Medicare and Senior HMOs. The older guy who just mostly retired told me "Ron you don't realize how good you have it-most people don't expect Insurance to pay the Chiropractor, but they want to see me for nothing".Just think guys and gals, of all those patients who cheerfully come and pay you $30-40 bucks cash for 10 minutes of your time. I think we are jaundiced about the awesome power we have in our hands, and how magnificent a profession we have compared to the average working stiff. Ron JohansenDC, SE Portland

On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 17:51:46 -0800 "Ann" <anngoldeen@...> writes:

We tend to moan amongst ourselves how bad we have it, so picked on, etc. One of my friends, the one I have been trying to go into practice with, has decided to quit practicing in the next 2 months. Why? Business is down and he doesn't want to renew his malpractice insurance of $18,000 per year. When he told me the amount I thought he said $1,800. This guy is an internist- not the most risky kind of medicine. His office has a terrible time collecting from insurance companies. They gave up on medicare, work comp and personal injury and don't take those patients at all. The rest of the bozos in his office are greedy jerks, but this guy isn't. It is a shame that they will continue on providing LOUSY care in our community and the compassionate good listener who refers to all kinds of non traditional healers is leaving.

Seeing him suffer reminds me that I don't have it too bad. Happy New Year.

Ann Goldeen, Astoria

OregonDCs rules:1. Keep correspondence professional; the purpose of the listserve is to foster communication and collegiality. No personal attacks on listserve members will be tolerated.2. Always sign your e-mails with your first and last name.3. The listserve is not secure; your e-mail could end up anywhere. However, it is against the rules of the listserve to copy, print, forward, or otherwise distribute correspondence written by another member without his or her consent, unless all personal identifiers have been removed.

[Guest guest]

I did a rotation in obstetrics that ended in August. $68,000 per year

malpractice. On several occasions I saw him do a tubal ligation that netted him,

in

his pocket, $75. talk about taking a malpractice risk for little pay off.

His average for a complete pregnancy - start to finish, first visit to

delivery, 8 months of so of care - was about $1300. He (the obstetrician) almost

had

a baby himself (at least looked like he was going into labor) when I told him

that it is not uncommon for a chiropractor to make $3000 for an auto accident

case - low risk, low liability, good outcome - for about what he makes

delivering 2 babies.

Anglen

[Guest guest]

One other thing to keep in mind is hours. How many of you get emergency calls

regularly as a chiropractor. one night in obstetrics I helped do C sections

and deliveries until about 11:00 PM and then went home to bed - and thought I

had a long day (started at 7:30). I went back in at 7:30 to do a surgery and

when I saw my mentor he had done 3 more deliveries that night. He is often

called to do an emergency c section at 3 AM. He was pretty upset at me one day

-

I had removed all the staples (or so I thought) from a woman who had a

C-section - in my defense she was really obese and it was hard to find them all

- I

left one staple in-her husband called him at 2 or 3 Am to tell him they had

found one of the staples in her stomach left over. I know one would say " how the

heck could you leave a staple in someones skin " , but believe me, when someone

is 5'3 " and literally 350 LBs after giving birth, a staple or two can get lost

in one of the rolls of fat.

My pediatric mentor gets calls non-stop when he is on call. One night he

scooped some ice cream for his son, and himself - ate the ice cream, and in that

amount of time had 6 emergency calls. He was a bit miffed the next day when he

told me about it since in many of the cases, the child had symptoms for a week

or so - before paging him at home to seek help. I mean after all, if the

child has symptoms for 7 days can't you either wait until tomorrow or come in

that

day during hours? I guess not always due to parents working hours etc - but I

am sure it gets old to get paged all night long.

Anglen