What is Digg?123 Comments
- nickrct, on 03/20/2008, -0/+20Doctor? I call you pimple popper M.D.!!
- sarixe, on 03/20/2008, -1/+21uncombable hair syndrome? wtf? solution: GEL
- slevit1, on 03/20/2008, -0/+17I'm in med school now, and I'm hearing a lot about the effects of managed care on physician reimbursement. Say what you want about doctors wanting to make money, but I will not be in any specialty which requires me to take insurance. I don't know when it became acceptable for an insurance company to just decide what part of a bill they feel like paying.
I'm confident that universal healthcare will never happen in my lifetime in the US, but if it does, you can kiss primary care and family medicine docs goodbye. - jdavid, on 03/20/2008, -2/+19plastic docs do not bill to insurance companies. universal healthcare will quicken this trend. what we need to do is to pay doctors well, and engineer the BEST tools in the world for them to use that are 75-95% cheaper to use. I have never heard anyone complain about paying doctors, its always about paying medical bills, which are inflated because insurance companies reject more than 50% of the bills that are submitted by doctors.
- rumplestiltz, on 03/20/2008, -0/+15My friend who was at the top of her med school class chose dermatology so she could have a somewhat normal lifestyle.
- ilves7, on 03/20/2008, -1/+15It's not surprising that people who've been in school for 4 years, usually with ~200k or more in debt, and facing at least 4-5 more years of residency making only about 40k a year, choose not to go into a profession that will pay 90k out the gate (primary care) instead of something like derm which pays a crap load more. Systems broke... who the hell would want to become a pediatrcian or primary care doc in a situation like that? Bottom of the barrell...
- smacksaw, on 03/20/2008, -1/+11Gotta rein in malpractise insurance for a start. If a doctor is not competent, that is what professional and even criminal punishment is for. Insurance only benefits trial lawyers. If a doctor makes a mistake, forcing all doctors to pay for the care of a person is punitive and stupid. It should either be covered by everyone's health insurance, social insurance or both. You'd solve a ton a problems right there if you did that.
Secondly, you can't have a multi-tier competition between doctors. You can't dictate to physicians what things cost while letting these dermatologists and plastic surgeons thrive in a free market. Either cover elective surgery and regulate the prices or put huge taxes on the elective procedures and put it into defraying the cost of actual life-and-death medical care.
This sort of thing is a disaster here in Canada. Doctors get paid nothing, hospitals are closing critical care beds - the system is bankrupt and it's yet more taxes to raise money to pay it. Many doctors don't want to practise here. We tried for 2 years to get a family doctor for our son and we still don't have one and he needed to see a specialist and it took almost two years. Luckily I'm an American, so our family doctor for kid is now in the US, but not everyone has that luxury.
People need to take back their health care from the bureaucracies who thrive on bilking us. - staeiou, on 03/20/2008, -1/+10No, Supply/Demand and the free market caused this to happen: students try to make the most money because of the debt they are in, and the most money is in superficial services to the rich. The only way the supply/demand will "bring about the proper change" and get more doctors into general health fields is if the cost of general medicine goes up to match the costs of plastic surgery (or if old rich people start accepting that they are old, which is unlikely).
- Stopher, on 03/20/2008, -0/+9"These people have $350 grand in debt and they are having ***** KIDS? If they somehow arent able to make enough money at all times to cover their massive debt, expenses and child expenses, who do you think will suffer?" It's because they're both halfway through medical school. You can only put off having kids for so long. That debt will go away once they're working & making 495K each for treating crows feet.
- gnomemage7, on 03/20/2008, -1/+9Yes, because all of the lawyers in the US go into law because they want to bring about social justice
People can choose their career for whatever reasons they please. Medicine is a ridiculously difficult career and if someone has the brains then they also have the free will to enter it for whatever reasons they wish. Who are you to decide what the "right" or "wrong" reasons are to enter medicine. - smacksaw, on 03/20/2008, -0/+8When you're next to me in the ER waiting are, dying and there's no doctors to help you, when you beg the admitting nurse for help and whine about the pain you're in, I'll be sure to interject "who the ***** cares?"
- Pittance, on 03/20/2008, -0/+8Except that both are extremely necessary and vitally important for life at all? Doh, lets pay them less and make their jobs suck! That way we can die early deaths and our children can be asshats.
- KyleRayner, on 03/20/2008, -2/+9***** everything is a hidden epidemic these days.
- TheRedNewt, on 03/20/2008, -0/+7Many hospitals are well aware of those type of situations, which is why they have programs designed specifically for married couples.
- jonnyboy1544, on 03/20/2008, -7/+14“It is an unfortunate circumstance that you can spend an hour with a patient treating them for diabetes and hypertension and make $100, or you can do Botox and make $2,000 in the same time,"
Hmmm if our medical system becomes government run, guess who sets the prices and tells doctors what they can and can't do... it's going to scare away doctors to countries where they can actually make a living. - Pittance, on 03/20/2008, -0/+7And the money. Don't forget about the money.-
- DrDigg, on 03/20/2008, -0/+6Our re-imbursement system is based on gov't rates. They already set the price. That is why the visit is $100.
- kwazyhulk, on 03/20/2008, -0/+6It's interesting when you compare physician salaries in America versus countries with socialized medicine. In Canada for example, primary care doctors make more than many specialists.
- sholt, on 03/20/2008, -1/+6UHS is a real condition, affecting hundreds of people every day, you insensitive clod!
- jonnyboy1544, on 03/20/2008, -0/+5For family medicine type doctors, absolutely. There's no money in it for them. I've lived in Scandinavia, it's a problem.
- FrancisB, on 03/20/2008, -0/+5Figures. It's one of the few free market specialties left to doctors, where their costs aren't "set" by the government.
In the last 5 years, I've had 2 primary care doctors quite medicine (both were in their late 30's early 40's.) Think about it. 12+ years of schooling and residency. A mountain of debt when you start your career in your 30's, and you're stuck making $150K as an generalist, and are told by the insurance companies you must see a patient every 8 minutes... Mind numbing, and burns these guys out in a few years... - dgp1, on 03/20/2008, -0/+5seriously. Insurance companies are the #1 ripoff in my life. And i'm a patient not a doctor.
And it's all kinds of insurance that are this way. I love how my dental insurance pays for about 30% of my normal freaking dental work. I won't even have a medical procedure done anymore unless they can tell me exactly how much it will cost me up front. Of course they usually can't. - dxgg, on 03/20/2008, -0/+4Uncombable Hair Syndrome? Back in the day, we called that bald.
- Chompy, on 03/20/2008, -1/+5Yeah, that's nice. Here's your bill. Since I'm an elective specialist, you pay me in cash. And my malpractice overhead is almost non-existent. What are you going to sue me for, a wicked blackhead on prom night?
- ShooterMcGavin, on 03/20/2008, -0/+4Nice one nickrct.
Apparently, Seinfeld references just aren't as recognized anymore. - Ellipsys, on 03/20/2008, -0/+4Your ignorance is astounding. Medicine is the only profession that doesn't pay what the practitioner bills, because of insurance. I'm guessing you're too young to work, but lets say your a plumber. You go to someone's house, fix their toilet and hand them a bill. They pay the bill, you go home right? Now we'll try it under the rules physicians face every day. You go to their house, fix their toilet and hand them a bill. They send the bill off to their insurance company (so now you don't have the money right away) and 6-8 weeks later, you get a check in the mail for $10 if you billed for $200 because "Fix toilet" was on the insurance company's books for $10 and that's all you're going to get.
- BuDTheDude, on 03/20/2008, -0/+4The summary is blown out of proportion, but two points should be made:
1) whoever submitted this is into sensationalism. At one of the hospitals associated with my medical school, there were 400+ applicants for 4 available derm residencies -- thats right, only four. With numbers like that, it is impossible to for the majority of medical students to enter the field. And plastics? I would guess that is - niradg, on 03/20/2008, -1/+4this is a great example of the negative consequences in having a society with immense wealth disparity. people are less willing to behave in a manner that benefits anything beyond their own bank account.
- Pittance, on 03/20/2008, -1/+4IF they get their residencies. And if they pass through and start a profitable practice/et al. THEN, they may pay it off and earn 500k a year. But what happens to their 2 newborn/toddler children if he gets a residency in NYC and she gets one in LA? They have to take them because they cant afford not to. If you want to go to school and be in serious debt until your 28 or 30, then maybe children arent right for you. Youve got to pick what you want to do in life. Not just do everything at once and pray your book smarts make it work out.
- xienze, on 03/20/2008, -2/+5I've got two friends in med school and thankfully they're in it for the "right" reasons. They indicate that the majority of med school students are looking for specialties that pay the most money and require the least number of hours. Obviously we all are striving to achieve that goal, but it kind of makes me sick to think that doctors are increasingly in it for the money and prestige rather than helping people.
- TheSexyGeek, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3Gel doesn't work for us black folk. :) If my hair gets too long, it is IMPOSSIBLE to comb.
- slevit1, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3The wealth disparity and people not wanting to work for anything beyond their own bank account is not hardly the problem! The problem is physicians not being payed what they deserve to be paid. After literally a quarter million dollars in debt from medical school, 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of med school, and up to 7 or 8 years of residency, doctors should not be getting paid $10 per patient!
- dgp1, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3haha, your nick is so relevant to your comment...
- Ellipsys, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3I'm a fellow med student (or, at least I was until a chronic, expensive to treat illness forced me to stop) and my father is a general surgeon. Insurance companies screw doctors over, screw patients over and the change that this article details is only the tip of the iceberg. My advice to you would be, if you don't want to "sell out " and take a specialty like plastic or dermatology (and most dermatologists DO accept insurance by the way, and even if you go into plastic, unless you have your own operating theater, you'll need to take some reconstruction cases to keep privileges at hospitals, in many cases), to join a group that pays you a salary, or get hired as a hospitalist (basically a doc that is hired directly by the hospital, again for a flat salary. You will make more money this way than trying to strike out on your own when you're the new guy.
- zwaldowski, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3My hair, for one, is too thick for gel. Short, but thick.
- DrDigg, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3I can tell that most don't. To be honest it is too hard to go through the process to become an attending physician if you are just in it for the money. My dad is a doctor too and he try to dissuade me from doing it. He told me if you are in it for the money you will drop out. He also told me you can more money in another field (and with less debt) if money is all you care about.
- snotrokit, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3the malpractice insurance for those fields is also MUCH lower.
- DephexTwin, on 03/20/2008, -2/+5joke != serious comment
- guyincognitoo, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3I wish I had that problem, that would mean I still had hair.
- mw113, on 03/20/2008, -0/+3we are held to a higher standard and are there because we have a passion for it. you can't spend 12+ years in school just for the money.. you learn that in the first semester of med school.
- geddon, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2Right up there with Sleepy Leg Syndrome.
- Kenzan, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2With the crushing debt that Medical school imparts on exiting students, and the prospect of being massively overworked as a resident for the next 5 years, can you really blame them?
- dblespresso, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2but they still leave to where the free market sets a higher wage. Welcome to the global economy.
- lhbaker, on 03/20/2008, -1/+3I'm guessing universal healthcare wouldn't outlaw private practice.
- guyincognitoo, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2They really should have gone to state schools. The only thing that matters is the MCATs to get into med school, and then Step 1 & 2 to get into a good residency. The residency is where you get the good training and make contacts. I have a friend who went to a NYS undergrad and Medical school for about 90k total. Did good on the tests and is now in a hematology oncology fellowship at Brown. All people seem to care about is what school you went to, but that is irrelevant in the long run.
- luft, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2First of all, as it has been pointed out, there are very few spots for dermatology residency, so they are getting only like 1% of grads. The thing is, they are getting the absolute top of the applicants. Dermatolgy is attractive because it makes a ton of mondya while requiring minimal hours. There are probably a few people that go into it for the love of skin diseases and how they can help people, but the truth of the matter is most dermatologists are the gold diggers of the medicine world. They want lots of money for little work. Let me tell you, as a med student I did a rotation in dermatology and it is deadly boring stuff. Just lots of weird little (or big) spots on the skin and lots of minor skin biopsies. Boring, boring, boring. I would hate my life as a dermatologist.
- sq2shooter, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2This is so true. Baylor College of Medicine in Houston gets hundreds of applicants for Derm and also only take around 4 every year. It is a great field to get into. You don't get called late night for emergencies and many derms don't even take insurance so it is a cash business.
- scottfarner, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2They do. The problem is that they go into fields such as Plastics and Derm because they don't have to go into a (relatively) underpaid specialty where they have patients who don't follow their advice, are demanding, and often disrespectful. There needs to be an increase in pay for the primary care specialties to attract the best/brightest in the medical field. Everyone thinks that doctor's are overpaid, but a primary care physician may make less than an accountant/banker/dentist/etc... Society needs to start prioritizing their needs. We, as Americans, want it all, but don't want to have to pay for it.
Of course, the "lifestyle fields" are highly competitive, you have intelligent, highly motivated individuals who actually desire to have a certain quality of life. How dare them?... - jonnyboy1544, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2They do, but don't you think they should be compensated for their service? At least to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans...
- MatthewDuke, on 03/20/2008, -0/+2Spoken like a poor and/or lazy person...
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