Hello everyone,
Dr. Sampson here. I'd like to make a few points with regards to that website. My office manager and I combed through that website and found it interesting. However, there are a few point to be made here.
1-The AGE of the data. All I see is fugures and data from 1997-1998. THAT WAS 6 YEARS AGO. A WHOLE LOT has changed in 6 years. How come nothing CURRENT is posted???
2-Medicine is REGIONAL !!! Whatever goes on TEXAS, does NOT necessarily go on in other states. For example the insurance reimbursement. Here in my state, Medicare is the BEST payer, the only higher payers are PHCS and Canadian insurance plans (Des Jardins, Trent, SSQ, etc) ,all others pay a PERCENTAGE of the medicare rate (between 70-90%). Blue Cross for example, pays 80% of the medicare rate. On the FLIP side, insurance on the Beech Street network is one of the WORST payers around. Beech Street is somewhere between 50-60% of the Medicare rate, which is why my group does not take anything in the beech street network. I found it interesting that on his site, ,Medicare was the worst reimburser, but the stuff on Beech Street were one of the best payers.
3-NOWHERE on his site do I see anything about hospitalizations. In the private practice world where I am at, Doing inpatient hospital admissions is a GOOD source of income. Most months, I make more from my hostpializations then I do my outpatients, especially during the winter season. Now the KEY is to do hospitalizations and do "unassigned on call" in private hosptials that have a high yield of insured patients. If you do the same at "county" hosptials, your income yield won't be good, because you will admit a higher percentage of uninsured patients.
4-How come the Physician who runs his site doesn't post his NET/TAKE HOME PAY?? I see the expenses, and what the insurance reimburses, maybe I am not looking thoroughly enough, but I don't see a gross and a net income. Even better would be some 2003 figures and not some 1998 figures.
**and finally**
5-Simple equation...MD =/= MBA (MD DOES NOT EQUAL MBA)
I will reiterate a point made by a previoius poster. Just because you had the scientific acumen to finish medical school and residency, DOES NOT MEAN, you have the buisiness and financial acumen to RUN A PROFITABLE BUSINESS. Too many people falsely assume that since they are of a certain specialty, that the money should just be rolling in. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If you don't make the proper "buisinessman" decisions after your training, you can find youself in a financial situation that is NOT rewarding. In my same town, ther are FP's that are doing GREAT financially, and on the flip side, I know of one that was losing his shirt. These ppl are both in the same region, but one is doing well, and the other wasn't. The LAUNDRY LIST of factors that determine how much $$$ you will make is TOO long and extensive to list here completely (maybe I will list them one day, but even then it wouldn;t be complete).
Anyway, enough of my rambling. By the way Macgyver, why is it that you are so damn evasive about giving your credentials?? (I already gave mine in a previous post)..hmmmmm
-Derek
MacGyver said:
This is a website from an Austin area FP with a 20 year established practice, full of patients.
His income has declined 50% since 1994!
He has a list of insurance companies and their reimbursement rates. It lists a column for total income and income minus overhead.
Medicare and most insurance companies give FPs NEGATIVE CASH FLOW RELATIVE TO OVERHEAD!
Wake up and smell the coffee:
http://home.austin.rr.com/austintxmd/Pages/insindex.html
Medicare patients result in a -$7.59 hourly loss for doctors. That is, doctors LOSE MONEY when they take Medicare patients.
If a doctor has a practice that is 100% Medicare, he will make only $14,000 a year.
Its not that much better for most of the other companies either.
