The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants

Emotions Rise with Healthcare Reform

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]

NOTE:  I penned this essay more than a decade ago.

Managed care is a prospective payment method where medical care is delivered regardless of the quantity or frequency of service, for a fixed payment, in the aggregate. It is not traditional fee-for-service medicine or the individual personal care of the past, but is essentially utilitarian in nature and collective in intent. Will new-age healthcare reform be even more draconian?

Unhappy Physicians

There are many reasons why doctors are professionally and financially unhappy, some might even say desperate, because of managed care; not to mention the specter of healthcare reform from the Obama administration. For example:

• A staggering medical student loan debt burden of $100,000-250,000 is not unusual for new practitioners. The federal Health Education Assistance Loan (HEAL) program reported that for the Year 2000, it squeezed significant repayment settlements from its Top 5 list of deadbeat doctor debtors. This included a $303,000 settlement from a New York dentist, $186,000 from a Florida osteopath, $158,000 from a New Jersey podiatrist, $128,000 from a Virginia podiatrist, and $120,000 from a Virginia dentist. The agency also excluded 303 practitioners from Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs and had their cases referred for nonpayment of debt.
• Because of the flagging economy, medical school applications nationwide have risen. “Previously, there were a lot of different opportunities out there for young bright people”; according to Rachel Pentin-Maki; RN, MHA”; not so today. In fact, Physicians Practice Digest recently stated, “Medicine is fast becoming a job in which you work like a slave, eke out a middle class existence, and have patients, malpractice insurers, and payers questioning your motives.” Remarkably, the Cornell University School of Continuing Education has designed a program to give prospective medical school students a real-world peek, both good and bad.

The Ripple Effects of Managed Care and Reform

“Many people who are currently making a great effort and investment to become doctors may be heading for a role and a way of life that are fundamentally different from what they expect and desire,” according to Stephen Scheidt, MD, director of the $1,000 Cornell fee program; why?

• Fewer fee-for-service patients and more discounted patients.
• More paperwork and scrutiny of decisions with lost independence and morale.
• Reputation equivalency (i.e., all doctors in the plan must be good), or commoditization (i.e., a doctor is a doctor is a doctor).
• The provider is at risk for (a) utilization and acuity, (b) actuarial accuracy, (c) cost of delivering medical care, and (d) adverse patient selection.
• Practice costs are increasing beyond the core rate of inflation.
• Medicare reimbursements are continually cut.

Early Opinions

Richard Corlin MD, opined back in 2002 that “these are circumstances that cannot continue because we are going to see medical groups disappearing.” Furthermore, he stated, “This is an emergency that lawmakers have to address.” Such cuts also stand to hurt physicians with private payers since commercial insurers often tie their reimbursement schedules to Medicare’s resources. “That’s the ripple effect here,” says Anders Gilberg, the Washington lobbyist for the Medical Group Management Associations (MGMA).

Assessment

And so, some desperate doctors are pursing these sources of relief, among many others:

• A growing number of doctors are abandoning traditional medicine to start “boutique” practices that are restricted to patients who pay an annual retainer of $1,500 and up for preferred services and special attention. Franchises for the model are also available.
• Regardless of location, the profession of medicine is no longer ego-enhancing or satisfying; some MDs retire early or leave the profession all together. Few recommend it, as a career anymore.

Assessment

To compound the situation, it is well known that doctors are notoriously poor investors and do not attend to their own personal financial well being, as they expertly minister to their patients’ physical illnesses.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. Tell us what you think? Are you a desperate doctor? Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos 

References:

1. www.managedcaremagazine.com/archives/9809/9809/.qna_dickey.shtml
2. www.hrsa.dhhs.gov/news-pa/heal.htm
3. www.bhpr.hrsa.gov/dsa/sfag/health-professions/bk1prt4.htm
4. Pamela L. Moore, “Can We All Just Get Along: Bridging the Generation Gap, Physicians Practice Digest (May/June 2001).

8

Filed under: Career Development, CMP Program, Financial Planning, Health Insurance, iMBA, Inc., Managed Care, Op-Editorials, Practice Management | Tagged: Anders Gilberg, david marcinko, fee for service, Heal loans, healthcare reform, Managed Care, Medical Group Management Associations, medicare, MGMA, obama, Richard Corlin, Stephen Scheidt MD | 2 Comments »