I recently was asked about taking a low or no interest car loan and using the money they had earmarked for a car to instead invest for a higher return. This “I can get a better return” game is very common and can be a dangerous game to play. Often it is used as a disguise to camouflage buying a car you actually can’t afford, while trying to sound like …
0% financing: It’s not always a good deal
It’s early March. I walk quickly past the ambulance bay, shivering as the doors open. Paramedics push a stretcher into the hall as a limp body gasps for air.
“Doc,” the tired man says. “I need help.”
“What happened?” I say. “You look terrible.”
“My belly is killing me.” He grips his stomach. ”I’m going to pass out.”
His pulse is weak, his hands cold. A nurse inserts an IV and turns to me: …
Doing too much hurt this patient
I was lucky to be raised in a place and time where I have not had any significant barrier in my way because I am a woman. I have been allowed to make my own choices and pursue my own path in life. My gender never deterred me from achieving what I set out to do. Can you imagine being a woman a hundred or two hundred years ago or …
The implicit biases of gender stereotypes in medicine
Chipper in his bow tie, our senior physician approached balancing a tray of milky black tea in his hands. He passed each of us a steaming mug. The scones followed, warm and crumbly, slathered with golden butter and glistening raspberry jam.
We sank into the tweed couches of the hospital lounge eager for a pause. Morning rounds had been a whirlwind of chest pain, strokes, intractable headaches, alcohol withdrawal and diabetes. …
What cancer and teatime taught me about burnout
I was doing a procedure on a child last night, and the mother said to her son: “I want you to be a doctor, make lots of money and buy me a house.”
Of course, it was 11 p.m. on a Friday night, and I was making my riches doing a procedure on an anxious four-year-old in the emergency department.
Doctors make a good income after they finish 25 years of education …
5 ways to be financially successful as a physician
Hustles are hustles, and side hustles add a little on the side. But if you want to maximize your income. You have to innovate.
When I started as an employed medical physician at the beginning of my career, I was overjoyed to make X. After years of watching money go out the door in medical school, and then making 0.25X in residency, I couldn’t believe that I was earning so much. …
Incorporate side hustles to your primary care practice
If you get health insurance through your job, beware: you might be picking up more of the cost of your medical care than you realize. With increasing frequency, employers are directing their workers to the kind of high deductible, high out-of-pocket insurance plans that leave workers financially responsible for a surprising portion of their health care expenses.
Not long ago, having insurance coverage meant your costs were largely …
How high-deductible plans are a bait and switch
Single payer health care is enjoying a boomlet in public opinion.
A Pew Research Center poll released in June 2017 found that, “Overall, 33 percent of the public now favors such a ‘single payer’ approach to health insurance, up 5 percentage points since January and 12 points since 2014.” 58 percent of those surveyed by Pew said that the government has a responsibility to ensure health for all, with a third …
Are physicians ready for single-payer health care?
Part of the challenge in oncology is the balance between hope and reality, and that is probably the most important thing to strive for patients living with metastatic disease. Often times, the important conversations relate to treatment options, goals of care, and patient preferences (i.e., how frequent the visits to the doctor and for infusions, …
The challenge in oncology: balancing hope and reality
We live in an era of demonization. Political adversaries are not opponents; they are villains. Commentary that contrasts with our views is labeled”fake news.” Presumption of innocence? R.I.P. Civil discourse has become a quaint memory. Why would one debate respectfully when today’s tactic is to talk over and demean your adversary?
On the morning that I prepared this post, I read an article reporting that one of Ohio’s largest insurance companies, Anthem, is denying payment for non-emergency …
Denying payment for emergency care: a physician defends insurers
The idea of financial freedom is something everyone dreams of. Many of us are at different stages of that journey, but on some level, it’s something we all work toward. In a previous post, I mentioned that I’m financially free from medicine, and I’m happy to say that still holds true, even a couple months later.
Not only that, but my passive income streams continue to grow without necessarily putting in …
Spend less vs. earn more: a debate for medical professionals
You don’t have to like everyone under your care. And you probably won’t, which is OK.
Own how you feel. If you insist on telling yourself that you should like someone when, in fact, you don’t, it will come out in other ways: The tone of your voice, the expressions on your face, the way you position your body.
There might completely understandable reasons why you don’t like the person under your …
You don’t have to like everyone under your care
The patient
The patient is a forty-two-year-old male who works in the auto manufacturing arena. He takes one step to his left, he turns and lifts a seventy-five-pound piece of metal from a moving conveyor belt. He turns back and takes one step to his right to put the metal on his table. He tightens three screws, lifts the metal off the table to take one step to his right, turning, …
The opioid epidemic: the origin
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Your partner’s residency is hard for you both, but it is possible to both survive and thrive throughout it! Finding happiness and success while your partner is in residency comes down to a handful of simple lessons, at least in theory if not in practice.
1. It’s your residency, too. It’s a simple but powerful departure point: residency is both your partner’s job and a significant period in your life together. Your …
10 tips for surviving and thriving throughout your partner’s residency
The National School Walkout is planned for March 14, 2018 at 10 a.m. and will last 17 minutes in honor of the 17 students and staff members killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day. The heart of the nation has seemed to shift overnight regarding the debate on guns, but this change has been almost two decades in the making. United and Delta Airlines …
This pediatrician supports the National School Walkout. Here’s why you should, too.
When preparations are underway for vaccinations to take place, my household becomes a war zone.
The thought of an impending vaccine, to my boys, resembles the actual possibility of a weapons attack. It is, in essence, a weapon. It’s a needle that comes your way and invades the comfort of your normally undisturbed skin surface. But it also serves a purpose — much like the police department does — to protect …
I believe in vaccinations. And do my kids know it.
For more than 100 years, Americans have searched for a cure for health care inequality. Instead, we’ve been prescribed placebos: watered-down poverty programs and party politics.
Despite attempts to ease the pain with reforms like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we continue to rely on a market-driven health care system. After stitching together the remnants of various poverty programs, we are left with a system so dysfunctional and freakish …
A case for national health insurance
Cars are incredible inventions. They allow you to transport yourself hundreds of miles, whenever you want, in a relatively short time period. Cars allow you to arrive at your desk job without any sweat or dirt on your face. They also allow you to take amazing road trips and might even act as a camper on a rainy night.
Cars are a depreciating asset
However, don’t forget that cars are a luxury …
Physicians: Get rid of car debt. Or, how to buy a car with cash.
During my third year of medical school, I received a harrowing phone call, “Can you please go over to Steve’s place? I am worried about him. He might want to hurt himself.” The person requesting this was the mother of one of my best friends in medical school. I was a third-year medical student on my surgical rotation. Steve’s mom was concerned he might commit suicide. Sleep deprived as I …
I am an emergency medicine physician. I started my career in an ER that saw a significant amount of walk-in trauma. Eventually, I left that department and moved on and now primarily see medical emergencies. For a while, I truly missed being involved in treating trauma patients. I missed the adrenaline, excitement, and fervor that ensues after a penetrating trauma is dropped off in the ER driveway.
But I just don’t …
What can physicians do about mass shootings?
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