Last week I had to finally break down and see my PCP over this damn sciatic nerve that has been a on-going problem since December. My PCP is part of a six prescriber practice and we have been going to him for 15+ yrs and I have known him for many years before that. He is around 5 yrs my junior … I consider this practice pretty progressive and well organized… It was a early adopter of EMR and has always utilized a number of other technologies to optimize the practice’s efficiency.
I am aware that this practice stop accepting new Medicare pts some time ago and knowing the area that the practice is located, I suspect that the number of people on Medicaid is not many and would suspect that the practice is no longer taking new Medicaid pts as well.. However, I know that they are keeping existing pts that roll over to Medicare as they age.
It is typical that during my visit with this PCP.. that our conversation turns to “shop talk”… This particular visit was not an exception. I know that at least the four male prescribers in this practice tends to politically lean far to the right. So I asked my PCP as to what the practice was going to do as Obamacare comes on line…
He told me that last year (2012) , he billed more dollars than ever before and he was able to bring home $40K less. He stated that the back office expense/over head was killing them. One would think that a six prescriber practice that has been focused on an efficient operation utilizing technology … would be able to “keep their financial head above water ”
He said that the partners had decided to sell the practice to the local hospital and that all he knew was that they were going to start giving him a paycheck.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that .. that paycheck was going to have a MBA attached to it… along with an increasing number of metrics that is going to be along to “interfere” with how he has always practiced medicine.
It will be interesting to hear his comments as this process evolves… I suspect that the “paycheck” will come with a very high professional cost to the prescribers in the practice.
Filed under: General Problems
The doc will be in for a rude awakening. Steve, I don’t suppose it would have done any good, since the docs had decided to sell, but you could have told him about the metrics that would follow the sale. Hospitals are buying up docs practices. What makes me wonder is how a hospital can make more money than the independent physician? I know some docs just want to get rid the paper work and billing and that is the reason they sell their practice. In a sense, they are in the same type situation that independent pharmacies were having about 30 years ago. I suppose the hospital can negotiate with insurance companies better and get more in reimbursements. But, it is sad. The independent pharmacies are pretty much gone and it is only a matter of time until the docs go the same way….gobbled up by big corporations.