11-29-2005, 12:10 PM
I'm at work right now, and I've got a chip on my shoulder. Help me to feel better: For the past 4 years, I've been working at my family’s medical building. I enter charges into the billing systems, deal with the payments from insurance companies, do the necessary coding, and deal mostly with the AR. I used to have a sort of contempt for doctors, being raised with them in every aspect of my life. Growing up, I was always around my family and family’s' friends, all doctors, physicians, etc. They all had their BMWs, Porsches, and general all around nice things.
Everyone assumes that all doctors have money in excess. That may have been the case years ago. After doing all of the billing, fighting with the insurance companies, and getting to experience 1st hand all of the crap that comes with the industry I can't help but to feel a new found respect for all of the doctors here in this country.
It's really funny that doctors are the only professionals out of all known professions where they get paid what somebody else wants to pay them. You can argue with the insurance companies but that may get you an extra 5% payment for that instance only. In fact, too much questioning of the insurance companies' practices may get you dropped a 'tier' where they can pay you even less. Plastic surgeons are indeed always very well-to-do financially; they don't deal with insurance companies. They get paid cash money for their work and very rarely accept insurance.
I want to give you an example. HMOs don't get me started on them... Besides the 0 to $30 we get for co-payments, the local authority for the HMOs pay us only 9 dollars per patient per month, regardless of how many times they visit in a month. I just entered a charge where a patient (HMO of course) came in for a callus on her toe, that’s it. The doc spent 20 minutes of his time examining and talking to said patient. Total income for that time spent away from paying customers = $9.00. This is only a small part of the whole picture.
I always overhear "he's a doctor, it won't matter to him" (talking about some price increase, gas prices, etc). The thing is, it does matter. 20 or so years ago, it wouldn't have made much of a difference, but today, doctors in this country aren't really 'well-to-do'.
I feel better now, whew.
Everyone assumes that all doctors have money in excess. That may have been the case years ago. After doing all of the billing, fighting with the insurance companies, and getting to experience 1st hand all of the crap that comes with the industry I can't help but to feel a new found respect for all of the doctors here in this country.
It's really funny that doctors are the only professionals out of all known professions where they get paid what somebody else wants to pay them. You can argue with the insurance companies but that may get you an extra 5% payment for that instance only. In fact, too much questioning of the insurance companies' practices may get you dropped a 'tier' where they can pay you even less. Plastic surgeons are indeed always very well-to-do financially; they don't deal with insurance companies. They get paid cash money for their work and very rarely accept insurance.
I want to give you an example. HMOs don't get me started on them... Besides the 0 to $30 we get for co-payments, the local authority for the HMOs pay us only 9 dollars per patient per month, regardless of how many times they visit in a month. I just entered a charge where a patient (HMO of course) came in for a callus on her toe, that’s it. The doc spent 20 minutes of his time examining and talking to said patient. Total income for that time spent away from paying customers = $9.00. This is only a small part of the whole picture.
I always overhear "he's a doctor, it won't matter to him" (talking about some price increase, gas prices, etc). The thing is, it does matter. 20 or so years ago, it wouldn't have made much of a difference, but today, doctors in this country aren't really 'well-to-do'.
I feel better now, whew.