"Surprisingly, most physicians, both employed
and independent, remain unaware of the increasing
numbers of private medical practice physicians who
are losing their practices for financial reasons--and
why American physician attrition is steadily increasing."
The title above that I found in an issue of the WSJ a while back did not say nearly enough about the financial problems physicians are facing, in the article below the headline.
Even the physicians at the Westminster Medical Clinic, in Wesminster, CO., after receiving funding from health insurance companies and elsewhere doesn't even begin to keep the Clinic above water. They can't even pay off their previous loan, let alone hire enough good help to ease the pain.
The basis of nearly every problem in providing healthcare, is money related--who's going to pay for it.
The health insurance companies are demanding that medical doctors around the country provide top medical care, in spite of the fact most doctors aren't making anywhere near enough money to come
close to the level of care they all wish they could provide. Why is this fact not even mentioned in every newspaper in the country?
There's no doubt in my aged mind that the perfect storm is coming very soon in medical practice and healthcare. So far the governmental fee restrictions have created an avalanche of attrition of American physicians. In 2005 private practice physicians made up only about 50% of the practicing physicians and by 2022 that number has reduced to about 33% of physicians. So it appears the predictions are right on regarding the continued physician attrition.
It should be noted that the attrition also applies to a significant decrease of male college students who are no longer applying to medical schools. Who can blame them when one becomes aware of what is happening to physicians in private medical practice today--increasing medical mandates, increasing fee restrictions. Who wants to live a low middle class lifestyle after becoming an elite essential asset to the medical care industry.
First, if a physician doesn't make enough money to remain solvent in private practice, and can't afford to pay experts about $30,000 per year to do all their business management and marketing for them--the education physicians never were taught, what would you do?
If I weren't already retired from practice, I certainly would quit medical practice completely. Private Medical practice has become a liability that can't be sustained. Much more money can be made in other businesses unrelated to medical practice.
Second, training doctors to become superb technologists rather than thinkers, won't work. We have an increasing population with a lessening number of physicians coming aboard. Medical schools have made it quite clear that they aren't planning on increasing the size of their classes. Medical schools are rarely being built. With all of the imported foreign physicians no filling up the vacancies are healthcare issues are becoming even more complicated.
With this set-up the majority of healthcare/medical care will be transferred to non-physician mid-level healthcare personnel. Medical mistakes will increase for obvious reasons. Malpractice suits will continue to increase significantly because of that. Fewer doctors means they will become managers of care and not providers of medical care. Can you see the quality of medical care decreasing now days?
Third, I expect there to be a complete change in the medical education system soon. Likely, an MD degree will be intermixed with an MBA degree routinely, which will require a 5 or 6 year curriculum for physician med school curriculum. Comparing the amount of medical knowledge taught to me in 1958 to 1962 with 20 times that medical education now being jammed into that same exact span of school time, means many newer problems.
Either the medical students now are all members of MENSA or the GENIUS SOCIETY or medical students now are only learning a small portion of the medical knowledge available. This factor will eventually create a zillion mini-subspecialists who can learn it all in 4 years time. That's why EMR's are essential now to compensate for what will be needed in the future.
Patients can then make multiple office visits in a day, like see the eye doctor, then the ENT doctor, then the neurologist, as they wander along the hallway of the medical building to the snack shack. And remember robots--well many hospitals now have functional robots doing menial jobs which will soon be seeing patients, at least to do blood pressures, temp, and pulse rates--later will monitor direct cardiac activity which is sent to the cardiologist miles away, by wireless.
Dealing with the chaos today of war, stock market crash, economy destroying actions repeatedly coming out of the White House, our invasion of immigrants pouring through our open borders, prices rising, interest rates increasing, pandemic, is enough to overwhelm anyone.
The storm of the century is already happening in the medical profession and healthcare, but apparently it is not considered a priority for our government now, with all of the other distractions. Maybe it is just not seen by physicians or anyone else as a problem. I believe it is a catastrophe waiting to be ignited.
The problem is that physicians don't have the business and marketing knowledge to know how to make money--so the financial struggles are worsening. The medical school academics refuse to provide a business education to medical students or physicians.
The financial struggle will get worse and medical care will become less available. I only wish our leaders would do something about resolving this problem that is a century old problem which continues.
----Professional Probe----
"Hippocrates was born too early to
take advantage of the medical knowledge
that the supreme physician, Christ, would
have taught him."
Articles©2013-2022/CGG INVESTMENTS LLC. All rights reserved. #146, 3-18-22
