"As an employee you are vulnerable to instant
changes to your medical career that result
from both internal issues or from external
situations that directly or indirectly
effect your career."
An increasing number of subtle warnings about the unsettled and threatened cut back on physician employment across the board during the Clovid Pandemic points to one of the situations in our environment that threatens employed physicians. Consider these issues....
1. Legal actions against nursing homes has increased exponentially. Patient neglect, abuse, and medical treatment are the focus. Physicians who are involved with nursing homes are always included in the legal actions. (WSJ article 10-4-14 by Jennifer Smith)
2. More patients are flooding Medicaid programs to the point that there is a shortage of doctors to treat them properly. Funding levels for Medicaid have been level for several years now and fee restrictions continue to rise. Don't you see what eventually happens down the line? --no doctors can afford to see and treat these patients--so reliance on mid-level providers will do the job, and healthcare worsens. (WSJ article 11-14-14 by Louise Radnofsky)
3. Increasing hospital debts from increasing uninsured patient healthcare now face the upcoming cuts in federal funds that help reimburse hospitals for doing this. So how do you fix this... certainly not using Obamacare, government in bankruptcy, antigrowth policies, and still have 25 million uninsured the same as we had before Obamacare (ACA). Hospitals must reduce costs soon. They do it fast by firing high-paid employees such as doctors, admin. nurses, and administrators first. (WSJ article 11-12-14 by Anna Wilde Mathews)
4. Valeant Pharmaceuticals is now begging the help of cosmetic surgeons in an effort to buy Allergan, maker of Botox. Another incident where doctors are more important in medical industries, politics, and building financial relationships with physicians. Valeant is paying physicians consulting fees of around $30,0000 with all the fringes. (WSJ article 11-13-14 by Jonathan Rockoff)
5. Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have been touted as HMOs, but with more power--since HMOs have not significantly reduced healthcare costs, the ACOs have taken over thinking they can do it better. For reducing healthcare costs the ACOs collect the excess money from bundling care for a fixed price. You and I know that won't happen if healthcare remains good, only if the quality of care decreases. (WSJ opinions 10-31-14)
6. Borders of healthcare are becoming faded. Battles are increasing about licensure for various kinds of medical care, like teeth-whitening procedures vs. Dentists. The invasion of usual medical care is progressing rapidly by unlicensed non-doctors. Physicians may be able to earn more joining that group than in regular medical practice. It's a good startup idea for Physicians leaving an employed position.
7. The Biden presidential administration has shown physicians and the medical profession how simple it is to takeover and make healthcare decisions by signing a mandate that dictates compliance of all physicians in the treatment and management of healthcare.
Additionally, bureaucrats have ordained themselves to the level of physicians and have been making healthcare decisions regardless of their lack of medical professional knowledge, even to the point of ordering practicing physicians not to prescribe certain medications for Clovid that they determined were not effective for medical treatment.
Government agencies have appointed themselves as qualified and legitimate decision makers for our healthcare while disrespecting all physicians. (Wall Street Journal, 2-23-22, letters)
8. At least 48 states and 3 territories have used National Guard Troops to fill healthcare gaps according to FEMA. Jobs included triage of ER patients, care for nursing home patients in the name of inadequate numbers of healthcare providers. As logical as it was, it points out the severe lack of nurses and physicians in our nation that nothing is being done to fix the problem.
(WSJ, associated press)
9. Withholding medical care from Gays, HIV/AIDS patients in the past has been well recognized which resulted in CDC reports of refusal to treat unvaccinated patients. Just how much does bias affect medical care, while alcoholics with chronic liver disease have free access. Mandating immunizations has been a political agenda for two years and is still being enforced. Yet the blame for these incursions falls back on physicians. (WSJ, letters, To treat, or not to treat)
10. When you read that the American Hospital Association reported that hospitals have provided more than $700 Billion in uncompensated care since 2000, how does that stand in favor of ever raising salaries of hospital employed physicians in the future in your estimation? (WSJ, States Put New Limits on Hospital Billing Practices, 2-8-22)
What happened to the private medical practice physicians who sold their practices to hospitals, then worked on their own patients as a hospital employee? Many were subject to lay-off or fired.
The November 2020 election is over and the country has two more years yet before any of the alterations in the healthcare issues can be implemented, assuming there will be any that are not mandated. Physicians will remain in complete uncertainty about the sustainability of private medical practice, unfortunately. The expectation of continuous changes physicians face in medical practice is something that will be remain a powerful driving force for preventing the growth of medical practices and cause for attrition of physicians.
The age of employed physicians is just beginning and I expect that the continued educational debt of medical students will force them into an employed life from now on.
When a physician is his or her own boss, they are not facing the serious problems that employed physicians are continuously subject to. Besides, who has the intestinal fortitude to fire themselves?
----Professional Probe----
"You will notice that there is always a way to
solve many medical problems at once, if you can
stand the heat and and the aroma of burning flesh."
Articles©2013-2022/CGG INVESTMENTS LLC. All rights reserved. #125, 3-16-22
