Think reimbursement doesn’t matter? Consider this doctor who perhaps was too idealistic to practice in today’s harsh realities facing medical practice:
His malpractice insurance rates also spiked – from $5,000 the first year to $22,000. He hadn’t realized that more patients meant more risk for the insurance company. When Masewic saw the size of his rate increase, he had to take out a personal loan to pay it.Every day for the last two months, Masewic or Danielle Devol, his practice manager, dive for the mailbox after the mail is delivered, hoping that there will be enough checks in the mail to cover the next round of bills.
“I come here every Saturday to see if I have any money,” Masewic said, “to see if I’m going to be in business next week.”
A few weeks ago, when he couldn’t pay his malpractice bill, he realized that it was time to close.
Masewic said he’s worked 70 to 80 hour weeks for the last two years and spent most nights and weekends on call for emergencies. But he said he never was able to pay himself enough to make a dent in his student loans or to even buy a car. He drives a rusty maroon Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon with 170,000 miles on it. When one self-pay customer saw Masewic’s car, he immediately paid a $500 bill that he’d been challenging, Masewic said.
For the last two months, Masewic has paid himself about $140 a week, which is all he has left after he pays his other bills.
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{ 8 comments }
You can’t see patients for free or for less than the cost of your overhead and expect to turn a profit. This IS simple economics. While the cost of insurance is blamed here, I’m sure this doctor’s utility bills doubled in the past year, his personnel costs increased, and interest rates on his loans rose too. All physicians have the same issues. Physicians float interest free loans to insurance companies and the federal government while they wait to be paid. Not collecting fees from patients at the time of service is the same interest free loan. Most doctors do this on occassion for true hardship cases, but you cannot do this much of the time and have an economically viable practice.
12 Top paying jobs for 2004 based on mean compensation data:
# Physicians and surgeons: $147,000
# Aircraft pilots: $133,500
# Chief executives: $116,000
# Electrical and electronic engineers: $112,000
# Lawyers and judges: $99,800
# Dentists: $90,000
# Pharmacists: $85,500
# Management analysts: $84,700
# Computer and information system managers: $83,000
# Financial analysts, managers and advisers: $84,000
# Marketing and sales managers: $80,000
# Education administrators: $80,000
While I feel bad for this provider that he was unable to make it as a sole practitioner, I can’t imagine that his straits are permanent in that being a sole practitioner are not his only options. Join a practice, work for Kaiser, become a litigation “lien” sell-out or put up that plastic surgery/minimally invasive cosmetic shingle up.
A good lesson for everyone else . Sorry for this guy .Hope he wakes up and smell the air .All the best for him .
Dump the insurance and become a concierge doc. Join an MSG which by the way are exploding in certain areas. MSGs provide better bargaining power with the insurers.
All of your suggestions have merit but it doesnt alleviate the fact that 1200 patients, mostly on medicare have lost there only doctor. Dr Masewic opened the only practice in a town of 3800 people and served by a regional hospital many miles away. Many of his patients come from towns even further from the regional hospital. Now all 1200 patients are having a hard time finding a practice that will take any new patients, never mind those on medicare, who are finding that doctors will not take them on at all….ABOVE ALL, DO NO HARM!!
I know this doctor on a personal level-we go back before his days as a medical doctor,and I have to say matt is one of the kindest people I knew back then-
a person who goes it alone and offers to help people who can’t afford good medical services or aren’t offered good doctors?
There are few in the world and those few deserve a medal of honor.
I myself am self pay and my doctor in derry demands payment on arrival…sadly half the time he spends less then 5 minutes with me.
It’s nice to see and old fashioned doctor for once who is real and see’s his work and his patients with kindness and compassion-
Good luck Dr.Masewic
davis03038@yahoo.com
I think this doctor would have us believe that the system failed him. I think he failed the system as well. This is a man who’s moral character was in question as a resident and while in private practice. He was known to have carried sexaully exploited married women through emails. He walked out on his wife who was ill and a young child to live with his MA who also was married. His MA became his office manager with out any experience. If your business is already in financial trouble this doesn’t sound like an educated buisness person. This is not the kind of physician that I would want for my family. I hope this doctor does not go on to practice hands on medicine again. There is a good reason why this endeavor failed. A good moral lession for all of us.
Who in the world is that last comment from? Certainly not from another physician, most of whom have respect for the shared years of hardship and sacrifice that becoming a physician entails. A professional would have found a way to bring this doctor’s ethics into question without spewing forth the gory details of such gossip-like information.
If the author was a victim of these exploits, then I can understand the inability of the author to understand the POINT. The point is that there are thousands of physicans (with upstanding personal lives) in the exact same boat. The ALL-PROFIT oriented docs, see the patient’s for 5 minutes, but stay in business. The ALL-HEALTH CARE oriented docs (like the old-fashioned, home visiting, you can pay me in kind docs) are bankrupt. The docs in between (likely with no business experience [its NOT taught MED school- that's for sure] are struggling, especially IF they are in a SOLO practice.
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