Comments on: Average annual salary of a PCP in Connecticut

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 03:07:00 +0000

Good news. If enough PCPs actually get up leave the state, maybe something will finally happen. Year after year, Im hearing the same cries from teh beaten and down drodden. Well, do something. Leave, RI is nice. Find another source of income. If your only making $75k, there are many other jobs out there that will pay that amount or more.

Once there is a real tangible shortage of PCPs, only then will teh average person care. Till then, start doing more wart removals.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:41:00 +0000

Each year, it’s harder for Volpintesta to stay in business. His malpractice insurance costs $15,000. His annual salary is $75,000. That’s not a typo – it’s fairly typical for a primary care physician in Connecticut.

Hardly a glowing piece of scientific endeavor but more along the lines of single example alarmism. Perhaps it is time to leave primary care to the NPs and PAs and have the others move into purely specialty fields.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 16:30:00 +0000

Anon 8:24,

You’re incorrect. The dictionary definition of “average” is a typical amount, rate, degree, etc.; norm. That’s precisely what the article states. And Kevin never said that $15k was the average payment, just that the article cited that in the example at hand.

By: Elliott

Elliott — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:29:00 +0000

One problem is that this is not the average annual salary of a PCP in COnnecticut. The way it is worded in the article is, “it’s fairly typical”. This is one anecdote again being used as if it is a fact by Kevin. Not even the biased author of this commentary, which Kevin tries to suggest is a news article, is willing to be that dishonest. (”Matthew C. Katz is the executive director of the Connecticut State Medical Society.”)

Here’s one link that indicates that that Connecticut’s legislature research office doesn’t believe that this is anything close to the average. For a change, they have facts rather than anecdotes.

http://www.cga.ct.gov/2003/rpt/2003-R-0297.htm

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:16:00 +0000

1) Dropping out of Medicare takes 2 years of not seeing ANY Medicare patients.

2) Dropping an insurance plan means saying goodbye to dozens of patients you have been seeing for years.

3) Raising you fees is meaningless when all of your insurance contracts specify what payment you will be getting. I can “charge” $10,000 for a diabetes follow up visit – Medicare will still pay me $41.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 11:36:00 +0000

So what happened to the law of supply and demand?

Normally, as some doctors quite, the rest would raise there fees, not accept the low reimbursements offered by the insurance companies, opt out of Medicare, etc, and become a viable businesses again.

Is it that doctors are not businessmen enough to do that?

Is it that they feel too guilty to charge their patients fair fees?

Is it that primary care doctors aren't really needed and don't have much actual market value?

Are primary care doctors being pushed out by non-physician providers?