A grim future lies ahead for medicine: “How many doctors are telling their children to go into medicine? How many doctors are taking courses to administer Botox, eliminate varicose veins, or perform other cosmetic services not covered by insurance? How many tests are being ordered as part of defensive medicine because of fear of a malpractice suit? How come the number of uninsured or poorly insured persons are increasing at an alarming rate? Does the public realize that the doctors or the companies that might employ the physicians who see the uninsured patient in the emergency room will most likely not get reimbursed?”
Op-eds like these, accompanied by increasing mainstream media attention to the financial plight of physicians, are needed to introduce the business side of medicine into the national health care conversation.
Physicians need to become more comfortable talking about money. Medicine is a business, and it’s good to see some doctors finally starting to accept this fact and take control of their profession.
Related posts:
- The regulation of medicine
- An ER blogger in trouble over patient privacy
- Op-ed: Doctors’ pay cuts save little in health costs
- Op-ed: Shortage of primary care threatens health care system
- "The incredible amount of wasted dollars in medicine due to worry about liability drives health care costs higher"
- ER waits: The NY Times is half-right
- My take: Mid-levels, health consultants, blogging
{ 5 comments }
Unless things change dramatically in the next few years, I will likely discourae my kids from going into medicine. Sad isn’t it?
I could go off in a million directions here.
Instead, I’ll just make a suggestion to future medical students: take extra classes in accounting, economics, finance and marketing. If you can get past organic chemistry, you’ll do well in those classes too. Also, you’ll better understand the real dollar cost of those pesky student loans.
An important point you’re making here. Thanks!
Phil,
You should make those recommendations to the pre-meds. As is, there isn’t any more time in the medical school calendar for non-medical coursework, unless you want to make medical school even longer, which kind of goes against the general “economics” gist of what you are saying.
Problem is, once they actually do see the working model of American medical practice, they might do what any smart student would do: choose something else.
If a premed take gets any business education and still decides to go to medical school then he/she has FAILED their business training.
A few years ago,I was sittng in the back of my rural hospital’s quarterly medical staff meeting, my mind wandering, looking over the 62 other docs present, when I realized I could not name a single physician that was or going to encourage their kids to enter medicine. Some of these docs were from medical families. How times have changed!
Comments on this entry are closed.