July 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 7
Is this why primary care match declined?
To the editor:
Did you know that the average 73-year-old person in the United States takes 17 prescription medications? Can you imagine how complex directing the administration of this regime must be?
What seems like a fair salary for this medical director? Medicare has agreed to give physicians $180 an hour, based on Medicare's reimbursement rate for 60-minute office visits for established patients.
Would you be interested in a job that pays $180 per hour? Before volunteering, read on:
(1) You will be paid for 26 hours per week but will work 70.
(2) Your job will constantly expose you to the threat of litigation.
(3) You will have to go to school for four years and train for several years after that.
(4) There will be many other expenses, including an office; employees; utilities; malpractice, health, business, fire and theft insurance; telephone; lab fees; taxes; and medical staff dues. These costs total $152 per hour to run my office, so after 25 years of practicing medicine, I am earning $28 per hour ($180 -- $152).
Under current Medicare guidelines, a physician working 70 hours a week, taking two weeks off for vacation and receiving five holidays would receive an annual salary of $35,672 ($28 per hour X 26 billable hours X 49 weeks). Do you know what is really "sick"? The starting salary for an attorney at a major San Francisco Bay area law firm is $160,000.
I grant that you will always be able to obtain medical services by paying for them yourself (face lift, varicose vein treatment, etc.), but who is going to manage your 17 medications when you're 73?
B. Patrick Harpole, M.D.
Pleasant Hill, Calif.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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