The Bigger Picture: Your Future Is in Your Hands
By Pamela Moore I’m just back from a round of how-to business lectures to physicians. I have to say, the experience is getting to be a little dispiriting, even for an energetic, glass-is-half-full person like me. It’s just room after room of hollow eyes and anxiety-driven questions.
The rare innovators and bright-eyed optimists stand out like shining beacons. I love you guys, but geez you’re depressing.
Don’t get me wrong; I empathize.
It’s absolutely true that reimbursement is bad, compensation is too low, risks are high, and all the rest. You have every right to feel the way you do. What’s worrying is the sense I get that some of you are just so used to it that you aren’t seriously trying to find solutions. I seem to meet more and more physicians in a downward spiral — so overwhelmed that they don’t have the energy to, say, figure out what’s going on with their collections. One primary-care physician, who started our conversation asking questions about Medicare billing, ended up angrily challenging my assertion that there are some contented family physicians. She has given up trying, but still plans to keep practicing the same way.
I’m not the only one to notice such patterns. Charles Bond, a partner with the law firm Physicians’ Advocates in Berkeley, Calif., says the level of despair among doctors is worse now than he’s ever seen before. He wonders why such intelligent professionals seem so paralyzed when it comes to thinking differently about business. Continued...
