Medical Private practice without board certification possible?

[Question]

Is it possible to start a private practice without being board certified? Is the issue that malpractice insurance is too high? Or that insurance companies won’t reimburse me?

— Experts please respond to this post —

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[AlteredScale]

Yes it's possible to run a PP without being board certified. Malpractice insurance may be limited.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I will just say, you really should just get certified. Many more options to you if you get BC, and nobody knows what environment may be in 20-30 years.

As it is, you would have high malpractice insurance and you might have issues with reimbursement/getting into networks. Less onerous if you are in a rural location where the need is greatest

 

[gyngyn]

Just do it.

 

[Med Ed]

Is it possible to find some corner of the country where you can practice non-BC without getting skinned by medmal and payers? Perhaps, especially if you're willing to live wherever it takes and accept whatever trade-offs come with the role.

Is it smart to jeopardize your career prospects over a board exam? No, no it is not.

There is a reason why those few docs who are persistently unable to pass their boards tend to migrate out of clinical work, or at least practice on the margins of the profession.

 

[lord999]

One other problem is if you are in a subspecialty, there are some issues with private practice without insurance network access:

1. Unless you are in a practice area that already is not covered by insurance and naturally has a patient pay direct model (cosmetics, some dermatology, neurology "pain control"), you will need referrals as direct to patient advertising is difficult, and what primary care provider would refer to a non ABMS physician when they could easily refer them to one?

2. Malpractice insurance and supervision would be extremely onerous.

3. Good luck even in rural areas on getting institutional access to practice. Most are limiting this, even for ER which used to have a large number of non-certified providers.