Community | January 12, 2012 | 40 comments

Physicians going broke because the health care system doesn't work !

source: http://www.naturalnews.com/034615_physicians_bankruptcy_health_care.html

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kennymotown
Great article that CNN didn't report in their report of Doctors going broke!

(NaturalNews) In the US, most people, upon hearing that someone is a physician assume that person has a higher than average income. However, a recent article on the CNN Money website drew attention to a new trend -- doctors declaring bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy and practice closures

The CNN article quotes Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent doctor practices about their finances, as saying "A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues." Physicians apparently blame factors such as rising business and drug costs, as well as decreasing Medicare reimbursements as contributing to the demise of many small private practices. Business experts on the other hand point to a lack of business management skills on the part of many physicians. The trend encompasses not only general practitioners but specialists including oncologists and cardiologists.

Physicians whose private practices are barely staying afloat in the current economy look forward with dread to the changes in the federal budget which could cut Medicare physicians pay by 27.4%. Even top-rated doctors, some of whom have sacrificed a personal salary in order to pay their staff members and keep their practices open, are contemplating personal bankruptcy and/or leaving medicine.

Observing that a wave of physician bankruptcies could leave many communities "without a vital health resource," the CNN article also briefly touches on at least one of the factors which have contributed to this state of affairs. "In oncology, doctors were allowed to profit from drug sales. So doctors would buy expensive cancer drugs at bulk prices from drug makers and then sell them at much higher prices to their patients." One physician quoted in the article stated: "I grew up in that system. I was spending $1.5 million a month on buying treatment drugs." Revised Medicare guidelines mean that physicians are now reimbursed for less than half the cost of those cancer drugs.

Broke docs a symptom of a broken system

What the CNN article does not state is that the entire mainstream health care system has been built on an unsustainable model of inflated drug prices, expensive diagnostic equipment and the con game run by most health insurance companies. Whereas those companies formerly ran their shell game primarily on health consumers, sharing the profits with doctors, now physicians too are finding no pea beneath the shuffled shells.

Perhaps if physicians received less training in prescribing drugs and more training in preventing disease, there would be a larger number of successful small practices. Currently, people enter the field of medicine expecting to go through a lengthy and expensive education process and then pay off any debts for that schooling by allying themselves with insurance companies, Big Pharma and medical device-makers.

On the other hand, people in modalities of healing referred to as "alternative" only sometimes receive insurance reimbursements. They are more likely to prescribe herbal remedies than pharmaceutical drugs. They learn to detect patient health problems through observation and patient contact rather than through diagnostic equipment which is expensive to purchase, as well as, invasive and toxic to the patient. They must rely on word-of-mouth from satisfied patients who have actually experienced some measure of healing in order to build their practices in acupuncture, herbs, chiropractic and other forms of natural healing.

Perhaps physicians can learn from people in these alternative health fields. There are integrative medicine clinics and even integrative medicine learning programs at some medical schools. But too often these programs position modern allopathic medicine as the norm or standard.

Insurance companies, for instance, will often only pay for "alternative" care if a patient receives a referral from someone who can put MD after their name. Medical research on herbal remedies often focuses on proving or disproving their efficacy according to scientific norms which do not take into account the holistic model of health.

Although we call all forms of healing other than modern allopathic medicine "alternative," the truth is that our mainstream system of medicine is younger than other health traditions. Since the American Medical Association was founded in 1847, it has waged a very successful PR campaign to position its members as the ultimate experts on health. Perhaps it is time for that organization to admit it does not have ownership of human health, and to reform the profession in order to save it.
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40 comments // Physicians going broke because the health care system doesn't work !

  • 2hellnwait
  • jimstoner
    • +2
      jimstoner  

    • You folks in the States pay 15.5% of your annual G.D.P on health care. Only the Marshal Islands pay more. But you rank 72nd in overall health performance. YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

    • 4 months ago
  • cmc101
    • +2
      cmc101  

    • my doctor is having trouble with staying in business because:
      High payments of his student loans , malpractice insurance and network membership charges

    • 4 months ago
  • 2hellnwait
    • +2
      2hellnwait  

    • Damned strange kennymo, but my cardiologist tells me that he is finding it is becoming increasingly more difficult to stay in practice because of constant govt bureaucratic intervention. . . and further states that his analysis is that it'll become increasingly worse when O'bummer-care takes affect. . . the very opposite of what you're postulating. . . go figure, huh?

    • 4 months ago
  • Paratus
    • 0
      Paratus  
    • 2hellnwait:

      Every doc I know is regarding the full implementation of Obamacare with dread. They are afraid of the regulation and compliance costs. Virtually all wish they had gone to PA school instead of med school. We are already seeing a huge increase in emergency room visits for sore toes and flu than two years ago. Too much entitlement mentality. Thank you government. I know one ER doc who sent home an ambulance a medicare pt called to take her home after her 36th visit in one year (nothing wrong anytime I have transported here and I have transported her a LOT), would not give her any more meds (drug seeker, she is entitled to the drugs after all) and threw the pt out of the ER. 99% of the people we transport to the ER are on medicare, many meet us at the curb in coat with bag of clothes. I asked one the other day if she wanted to go to Wal Mart or the hospital. This will only get worse as more primary care physicians get out of the business and the ERs are used for this purpose.

    • 4 months ago
  • kennymotown
    • -1
      kennymotown  
    • 2hellnwait:

      Funny how the stingy, greedy bastards in this country can't see the collapse of the Medical field all around them. Lets see, doctors more concerned about their financial portfolio then their Hippocratic Oath. When patients can't afford even an annual check-up or preventive care, the shame squarely sits on them!

    • 4 months ago
  • kennymotown
    • +1
      kennymotown  
    • Paratus:

      How shameful your attitude towards the sick is, thank goodness your not a doctor. But still an ambulance emt (Small Letters for the small mind). Certainly profit is more important than healing in your mind. I even wonder how judging you must be even in that position, how many fat, poor, or homeless people have died in your ambulance? I bet you even have a score card that you check for everyone of them that doesn't make it. You know those Obama supporters, you can probably pick-em out of crowd. There is a place in hell waiting for you, thats for sure!

    • 4 months ago
  • 2hellnwait
    • 0
      2hellnwait  
    • kennymotown:

      ~ Kennymo, I live in Hawaii, and health care is mandatory to be provided by all employers to their employees who work more than 20 hrs a week, and the premiums are so onerous that many employers hire only part-time employees 19 hours a week. . . now why is that?

      Granted it is because health care insurance "providers" have a ready market, which is mandated by Hawaii's govt, that dictates the rates, services and payouts that 'must' be provided. . . needless to say it is insufficient in meeting the costs of the physicians services.
      Fact: the attrition rate of medical practitioners in Hawaii is alarmingly high.
      Fact: the waiting list just to secure a general practitioner as your primary physician is from 6 months to a year and a half.
      Fact: even if you have physicians for specific purposes, just to get an appointment can be up to 5 to 8 weeks before you can see the Doctor. . . I personally have been waiting for 9 weeks just to see my urologist, and that is not an exaggeration.
      Fact: every one of my Dr.s that I've seen in the last year have said that their billing departments analysis of the O'bummercare program say that they believe that it will be difficult to remain in practice.

      I don't give a damn what the "experts" say about how much better O'bummercare is supposed to be, I do know what it is now, and I believe the professionals to which I entrust my care when they say that it's going to be a colossal, expensive pain in the ass just to deal with more govt "oversight."
      Simply put, I don't share your faith in big socialist government kennymo. . . pure and simple!

    • 4 months ago
  • 2hellnwait
  • kennymotown
  • kennymotown
  • 2hellnwait
  • kennymotown
  • 2hellnwait
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  
    • 2hellnwait:

      Now that my Niners have just finished off the Saints, all I can say is when Capitalism has destroyed the opportunity for 100 million Americans to have any fucking healthcare the Constitution provides for the WELFARE OF IT'S CITIZENS!

    • 4 months ago
  • LivingPong
  • 2hellnwait
    • 0
      2hellnwait  
    • kennymotown:

      The constitution does not state that government will "provide" for the welfare of it's citizens, but for the "protection" of the welfare of it's citizens. . . we are assured of "equal" opportunity. . . not equality.

    • 4 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • Dagum
  • corderodedios
    • +1
      corderodedios  

    • Hey, health insurers' profits are way up

      http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/business/14health.html

      Medical costs are way up

      http://www.healthcarefees.com/news/123-healthcare-cost-increases

      medscpe.com reports in its annual survey that the average physician makes about $200K/year and is satisfied with his salary and work. Is it possible that the ultimate sources for the post are propaganda, and less than honest? It smells like a lobying effort by consultants in the employ of physicians' groups to bolster efforts at cuts in safety-net reimbursements. And bash proponents of reining in out-of-control medical costs through single-payer health coverage. Like every other industrialized nation, where people live longer, healthier lives and pay way less for that iteration of "right to life."

    • 4 months ago
  • Paratus
    • 0
      Paratus  
    • corderodedios:

      You spend 4 years in undergrad, 4 years in med school, residency, specialization, fellowship and wake up at 33+ years old with 250k - 400k in college loans to get your MD then have to make a living in addition. Docs have earned their money regardless of what they make. I don't begrudge them any of it.

    • 4 months ago
  • 2hellnwait
  • JohnA
  • cmc101
    • +1
      cmc101  
    • JohnA:

      It was so bad before Obamacare my hospital change networks twice so they could charge out of network sure charges to make more profits
      cancer pet scan $1,500 net work Out of net work charge $6,500 I got the tee shirt

    • 4 months ago
  • Ambill94
    • +4
      Ambill94  

    • Just has a conversation with my heart doctor this week about how insurance companies are screwing us consumers more every year...he said that they are doing the same to them, paying less each year for services that often cost more to deliver each year...the big winners are still big pharma and the insurance sammers...

    • 4 months ago
  • savroD
  • kennymotown
  • Vierotchka
  • kennymotown
  • coolplanet
  • JohnA
  • kennymotown
  • jimstoner
    • +7
      jimstoner  
    • kennymotown:

      Hi Kenny. Let me repeat something here that I posted earlier today if you don't mind. I think it is relevant. One of the problems we have in Canada, is Americans using phony Canadian health cards to get health care at our expense. A little while back, Ontario had to issue new photo I.D. OHIP cards (O.H.I.P. the Ontario Health Insurance Plan) because so many people from Michigan had them. Not only does Universal Health Care work for us, it works for Americans that want to cheat our system. I am willing to bet that there are far more Americans coming to Canada for health care on the sly, than there are Canadians going to the States for health care legitimately. And lets face it, If you have a for profit health care system, are your politicians and insurance companies going to tell you the truth about the non-profit system next door. One of the most ridiculous things they were saying during the so called Obama-care debate was "Do you really want someone coming between you and your doctor? Do you really want some government bureaucrat making your health care decisions"? Well the simple fact of it is, my doctor could order an antler transplant for me, and the government would not know about it till they got the bill. The only place someone comes between doctor and patient is in the United States under the system you already have. They are called HMO's. How did they get Americans to be afraid of our system, by lying to them about it being like yours?

    • 4 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • jimstoner
    • +5
      jimstoner  
    • kennymotown:

      The pension plan for Ontario health care workers has a surplus of 35.7 billion dollars in it. As I have said before. Canada is the only member of the G7 that has reported surpluses across the board for the last ten years. That is a surplus in every single program we have.

    • 4 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • jimstoner
  • kennymotown
  • Ambill94
  • MSII
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