<p>my$0.02 is absolutely correct. the upside of private practice, also, is that a physician is under no obligation to accept insurance plans in his private office and can choose to accept direct payment from the patient only.</p>
<p>Do you realize that as a doctor you immediately become part of people'e lives, privy to things they don't even tell their spouses, best friends? that they rely on you to use your skill, knowlegde and creativity to help them to lead healthy lives, cure them when they are sick, and comfort them when they know that they will die? Medicine is more than a job and cannot be meaured in terms of monetary compensation. The low pay and long hours of residency, evils of managed care, and long years of training have been covered elsewhere- but medicine has the compensation of becoming a valued and important part of people's intimate lives- it extracts a toll because of that, and pays dividends in really touching people. And I am a cosmetic dermatologist btw- who also see patients dying of melanoma and leaving young families behind, suffering from lupus, and just elderly people looking for someone to care about them. You never know who is going to walk through your door.
Please think about this when you decide that medicine is a good "fit". If you don't want that kind of responsibility PLEASE go into banking and enjoy your millions- cause no one is going to want to come to you as a doctor</p>
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[quote]
can choose to accept direct payment from the patient only.
[/quote]
Uh, good luck with this one.</p>
<p>its not really a problem if you have a solid patient base with the means to pay that likes you as their doctor. the GP i see doesn't take any insurance policies. what i really mean is, you can choose which insurance to accept. if you have issues with reimbursement from a particular insurance company you can stop accepting them.</p>
<p>I believe that nowayjose is trying to apply logic he learned from business school to medicine. Unfortunately, knowing three people in medicine does not qualify a person as an expert. Just by saying that I went to a GP emphasizes the point. There are very few GPs in medical practice. Most PRIMARY CARE physicians (taking care of adults) receive 3 years training in family practice or internal medicine.
With regard to payment. Most physicians are not stupid. Of course they would avoid HMO and take cash upfront if they could. However, many area have high managed care penetration and you can not survive if you do not take some insurances.
To be a plastic surgery training takes 6 to 7 years after college. It is not something someone undertakes without a desire to help people. This is a least 10 years of suffering after college. While the surgeon is doing his residency, all of his banker or finance friends from college are going to Nobu or Buddakhan every night.</p>
<p>OldPerson, NWJ does not seem to have attended business school. My best guess is that he is a senior in high school, possibly on his way to Cornell (or possibly just with an interest in it).</p>
<p>Plastics takes 6-7 years after medical school, making OldPerson's point even more true.</p>
<p>i'm not trying to mislead anyone here. the two people above me are clearly more qualified to answer questions. this isn't ask an expert, i was trying to respond to the OP with similar questions i have asked physicians i know. clearly secondhand information such as this is not reliable. and bdm is right, i am going to cornell, and the more i think about it, the less i want to go to medical school.</p>