Doctors make too much money

[Anonymous]

Without question a major contributor to the cost of our healthcare is personnel costs, including highly paid doctors and nurses (relative to the rest of the first world). People are mostly wrong to blame insurance companies, which are low profit margin.

[Anonymous]

Low margin but hundreds of thousands of employees. That costs.

[Anonymous]

Insurance executives make too much money. Not doctors.

[Anonymous]

They’re paid 500k a year or so and they spend much of their time performing incredibly complex surgeries. If you want to start paying doctors like preschool teachers then you’re going to end up with doctors who have the equivalent IQ and training as a preschool teacher putting rods in your spine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Dad's a retired pediatrician and the clinic/employer was basically demanding they see about 20 patients a day. My Dad ended up quitting because going part time with facility fees and insurance he'd actually be losing money. With high student loans the younger doctors are struggling a lot.

What does this mean? He must see at least 20 patients a day or he can see at most 20 patients a day?

Seeing 20 patients a day means 2.5 patients an hour, that's not a lot. I read an article saying an OP/GYN was required to see 4 patients an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went to the ortho. Was seen initially by the trainee. The tech staff did all of the work for the xray. Doc comes in, does one minor mechanical test, looks at the xray for 15 seconds, and then prescribes steroids and P/T. Co-pay was $50, and they're probably charging my insurance well north of $400+ for the entite visit not even counting the trays. I think his entire visit was less than 4 minutes long. So in otherwords, if we were to extrapolate my $500 (approx.) visit out to one hour, he's earning $6000/hour, roughly speaking.

That is just patently ABSURD. Yes, we all know the middlemen like insurance companies, PBMS, etc. are all terrible and are driving up costs, but why are doctors and their practices untouchable? We treat them like gods in America point they are immune to criticism, but often times they do minutes of work for outrageous fees that AI could probably do soon for 1/1000th the cost. Why can't we ever talk about how doctors are also fleecing America and driving up healthcare costs? They treat patients like cash cows. More volume = more cash = fancier Porsche and bigger house.

I am just disgusted with the entire practice of medicine in America from top to bottom.

They might charge the insurance $400, but the insurer will decide how much to pay. Typically, it's half. So, they overbill to ensure that they get something close to what they really want. It's certainly an odd system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Dad's a retired pediatrician and the clinic/employer was basically demanding they see about 20 patients a day. My Dad ended up quitting because going part time with facility fees and insurance he'd actually be losing money. With high student loans the younger doctors are struggling a lot.

What does this mean? He must see at least 20 patients a day or he can see at most 20 patients a day?

Seeing 20 patients a day means 2.5 patients an hour, that's not a lot. I read an article saying an OP/GYN was required to see 4 patients an hour.

My doctor has 15-minute appointments. It seems like four (4) patients an hour is typical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Dad's a retired pediatrician and the clinic/employer was basically demanding they see about 20 patients a day. My Dad ended up quitting because going part time with facility fees and insurance he'd actually be losing money. With high student loans the younger doctors are struggling a lot.

What does this mean? He must see at least 20 patients a day or he can see at most 20 patients a day?

Seeing 20 patients a day means 2.5 patients an hour, that's not a lot. I read an article saying an OP/GYN was required to see 4 patients an hour.

I’m a pediatrician and 20 patients a day is low. I am required to have 4 patients per hour on my schedule , which ends up being 28 a day (one hour off for lunch and admin time like school forms, prescription refills, etc). In reality it’s more because I squeeze in emergency visits for my patients

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Insurance executives make too much money. Not doctors.

Even if that’s morally true it’s not an explanation for systemic costs. One CEO making too much is a drop in the bucket relative to hundreds of thousands of doctors making much more than European/Canadian/Australian doctors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Low margin but hundreds of thousands of employees. That costs.

Doesn’t matter. Even under single payor these kinds of administrators would have jobs.

[Anonymous]

Before your MD sees you for those 15 minutes, he/ she reviews your chart. He likely also spends some time answering telecommunications that came in through email, probably answering questions from the oncall nurse, reviewing lab results that just came in on the patients he saw earlier and the list goes on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insurance executives make too much money. Not doctors.

Even if that’s morally true it’s not an explanation for systemic costs. One CEO making too much is a drop in the bucket relative to hundreds of thousands of doctors making much more than European/Canadian/Australian doctors.

You couldn't be more wrong

[Anonymous]

Doc here. I left clinical medicine because the salary was rather low given my options. If I have to miss out on my kids life and my own life, I also have to maximize hourly compensation. Now I make more money doing something else. The expense of healthcare is not because of the doctors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doc here. I left clinical medicine because the salary was rather low given my options. If I have to miss out on my kids life and my own life, I also have to maximize hourly compensation. Now I make more money doing something else. The expense of healthcare is not because of the doctors.

Except yes, it is. The fact you could make more money elsewhere doesn’t disprove that. The relative compensation of doctors and nurses and NPs and PAs in other first world countries is how we know that’s a major factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insurance executives make too much money. Not doctors.

Even if that’s morally true it’s not an explanation for systemic costs. One CEO making too much is a drop in the bucket relative to hundreds of thousands of doctors making much more than European/Canadian/Australian doctors.

You couldn't be more wrong

Unfortunately, I am right. And it’s why our healthcare costs are so unsolvable. We don’t want to pay providers as little as they would make in countries who have healthcare costs more under control.