M
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According to the article, those vet practices in Texas are starting to engage in price collusion to keep prices artificially high and bypass the free market.
If MDs did that, they'd be found guilty of anti-trust violations.
If MDs did that, they'd be found guilty of anti-trust violations.
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How many MDs have patients price-shopping for their services? I think vets are much more subject to market pressures than MDs, considering the demand for human medical care is relatively inelastic.
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Hah, I didn't even see that part of his/her/its message. I got sidetracked reading the ridiculously long sig.
Ridiculously long and just ridiculous. I'd be fairly uncomfortable having a doctor that thought that was a quote worth looking up to. Not because it's sacrilegious (that doesn't bother me), but because a little humility would be nice...
I think you misunderstood. What they're talking about is consolidating so instead of having multiple one-person practices you have a larger multi-person practice.
MDs do this all the time -- my pediatrician is in a practice with about 20 other MDs and 3 clinics and she said it's because it's very hard for the 1- or 2-MD practices to compete.
Veterinarians have been more slow to do this, I think because they tend to be very independent and frankly, they often suck at how to run a business.
As for the article, I think the LA practitioners hostility toward the vet. schools is misplaced. The reason they can't hire associates is because they aren't offering a high enough salary -- that's not TAMU's fault. It's the economics of LA practice.
Giving admission preference to male students from a rural background is unlikely to change this much. For example, a recent study in Australian Veterinary Journal (July 2007;85(7):296-9.) followed veterinarians for 15 years after graduating. They found that veterinarians who had grown up on farms were slightly more likely than those from other backgrounds to continue working in mixed practice, although the numbers were small and the differences not significant. Whatever their background, the majority who started their careers in mixed practice left over the next few years, and by 15 years only 15% remained.
Giving admission preference to male students from a rural background is unlikely to change this much. For example, a recent study in Australian Veterinary Journal (July 2007;85(7):296-9.) followed veterinarians for 15 years after graduating. They found that veterinarians who had grown up on farms were slightly more likely than those from other backgrounds to continue working in mixed practice, although the numbers were small and the differences not significant. Whatever their background, the majority who started their careers in mixed practice left over the next few years, and by 15 years only 15% remained.
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Thank you! That article was very interesting. I never realized how badly of a shortage there is for LA veterinarians! A mixed animal practice sounds interesting. I guess it'd be impossible to be really bored huh? 
