Reading all of your comments is truly making me sick to my stomach. I am a nurse – in a good year I make well over $100,000. My education consisted of 2 years of college and 3 months of orientation to an emergency dept. My education cost approximately $10,000 which I easily paid back in my first three months of working. My husband is a Surgeon.
We met in his second year of Surgical Residency (5 yrs total). When we met he was working well over 100 hours per week and came home with a whopping $1,100.00 bi-weekly. He never slept, we barely saw eachother and I paid most of the bills. Fast forward to completion of his residency. We had to pay for all of his licenses, applications to hospitals, and lets not forget $35,000 for medical malpractice before he even performed a surgery. Now, in his second year we are paying $55,000 for medical malpractice and on most busy nights 30 – 50% of his patients are either uninsured or medicare which might pay $200- $600 depending on the surgery. He dedicated 4 yrs of his Ivy League education, 2 yrs of Research, 4 yrs of medical school and 5 yrs of Surgical Residency to his practice and to helping others. We are now in the process of paying back his $350,000 in school loans which acquire interest from day one. Our phone rings in the middle of the night almost every night that he’s actually home. He makes himself available to his patients and his hospitals 24/7. We have missed countless events and have left numerous family functions including weddings on behalf of his practice and his patients. We will soon be receiving his new malpractice bill which will most likely be in excess of $70,000 for his third year of practice. He can be sued by anyone at anytime whether they had insurance or not. Have any of the posters who so quickly make comments about how Surgeons make $250,000/ year ever dedicated 15 continuous years of their lives to any type of education? Do you really believe that $250,000/yr is worth what my husband has gone through and the bills he has accumulated? Unlike a hospital bill we have to pay back this debt or we will lose our home. As I said earlier I am a nurse and I do work very hard but I would have never endured what my husband endured to make $250,000 per year when I make over $100,000 working half as much as him with my measly 2 year education. Think about that the next time you question a bill sent by a man who woke up in the middle of the night and went to work on saving your life whether he would be paid or not to do it- then thank God there are people like him

A doctor goes to his mechanic to pick up his car. The mechanic takes the doctor to his car and says, “See doc, I fix complicated machines, and you fix complicated machines. I have to figure out problems and so do you. I replace and mend, so do you. So tell me doc, why is it that you get paid so much more than I?”
The doctor smiled and said, “Try to do it while the car is on.”

1. Surgeons spend little time in procedures that are deemed relatively simple and they charge too much for them.
2. Surgeons are getting paid more than they deserve because of 1.

Simplistic explanations via economic jargon and over simplyfing the job of a surgeon does nothing to explain the full story. The idea of what it takes to be a surgeon, or for that matter a physician in general, is thrown out the window in all these explanations. Nobody will deny that it takes 4 years of medical school, and another 5 years of residency plus 1 or 2 more years for fellowship to attempt a surgical subspeciality. However, people will ignore what that entails.

The reason why the procedure is “simple” is because the surgeon took 10-11 years of his life making sure it would be “simple”. You are paying the surgeon $5000 because HE is making it simple for you via his formal education and experience. Otherwise, you could go to the local butcher and let him take a whack at it, but I doubt any of you would do that =)

This is the same reason why the car mechanic analogy is flawed. Yes, in very simplistic terms you can explain everying by supply and demand, but does that explain the situation completely? No. In fact, it’s fairly insulting to most intellects to even answer with such a simplistic statement. Car mechanics neither require the formal traning a physician needs, nor do they deal with situations as big as doctors do, namely life.

Although I agree healthcare is expensive, I think it requires a little perspective. People are willing to pay $5000 for a new home entertainment system, or rarely object when they see David Becham sign a $250 million dollar deal to kick around a small round object into a net, but when it comes to their own personal health, their life…well….”those damn surgeons!”

This sounds to me like the surgeon was probably on salary through the university. Alot of the big universities surgeons and doctors are on salary.

The story admits that the ins paid more than 100,000.00 for this surgery.

It sounds to me like an internal dispute between the surgeon and his employer. But, I guess it makes a good story if ya don’t read to closly.

You talk so much about billing ins. and only getting a ridiculous reduced payment. I keep all my ins. statements and this is exactly what was billed and what was paid.

I’m the arthoscopic surgery BTW.

Surgeon billed:

2708.00
disc= 541.60
my co-pay=433.28
ins. paid=$1733.12

Surgeon also billed; (2nd. part of SAME surgery;

2452.00
disc=490.40
my co-pay=392.52
ins. paid=$1569.28

total surgeon received was $4128.2

Orthopedic ins. chg. for surgery
2694.00
2694.00
337.00
43.66
discounts equaled 1442.16
I had met my co-pay for year=0
total paid by ins.$4190.78

in addition Surgeon also sent a bill for $990.00 I don’t know what for??

ins paid=$792.00

total that ins. paid was=$8285.18
total I pd. in cash=$825.60
total amt paid=$9111.20

I don’t know but I can’t see where there could be a complaint if you are receiving those type payments for a few minute surgery and honestly, it looks to me to like everyone billed and got paid double.

Additionally, there was later another bill turned in to my ins. for the same amt as above with an addition charge of $1,190.00
He was paid 940.00 and the rest was denied for claims that had already been processed and paid.

It would be kind of sad if something was happening to his money and all he saw was the check for 940.00 and believed that is all that was paid. Otherwise I can’t see any basis for your complaints.