As many physicians close down their practices and take jobs as hospitalists, a shortage of new medical students choosing primary care, the impact is felt. We see some of the same here out west with physicians taking a job as either a hospitalist or with large organizations like Kaiser Permanente. Either case, it is a salaried or hourly job with a set number of hours.
Meanwhile, the insurance contracts are not getting any better either and we have some of the lowest in California, and many physicians when I discuss what their general salary is, respond, “it’s what’s left over after the bills are paid”, in other words by the time they add on their rent, malpractice insurance costs, and the entire cost of the practice, that amount varies, with some family practice physicians here not even seeing 100k a year, so when the other opportunities arise to make more with less responsibility, no wonder many make the change, as they have lives too.
There’s seems to be real issues in the US today with anything “in the middle” having to struggle and the affordability of the day to day necessities, so middle class citizens and family practice physicians are pretty much having similar issues, but we need “what’s in the middle” as it is what this country is based on. I sometimes wonder where the shift in paradigms is leading, will it all be retail clinics, ER Rooms, Emergency Clinics and large hospital chains that fill the landscape in the future? BD
The wait to see primary care doctors in Massachusetts has grown to as long as 100 days, while the number of practices accepting new patients has dipped in the past four years, with care the scarcest in some rural areas. * Graphic Average wait for appointment Now, as the state's health insurance mandate threatens to make a chronic doctor shortage worse, the Legislature has approved an unprecedented set of financial incentives for young physicians, and other programs to attract primary care doctors. But healthcare leaders fear the new measures will take several years to ease the shortage.
0 comments :
Post a Comment