There is a lot of grousing in the financial independence community. Especially from those of us above the age of thirty. We look at the young people in this community and shake our head knowingly. We grumble some version of the same slogan. If I only knew then what I know now. We repeat this refrain often but put little energy it to consider if it is true. Would I do …
Would you want to become a doctor again?
Not only is an audit unlikely to happen — if it does, it’s rarely a huge deal.
Few words inspire such fear in the hearts of Americans as “IRS audit.” But one of the biggest mistakes that taxpayers make is letting fear of the IRS stop them from taking advantage of tax savings they deserve. Especially for locums tenens docs and other 1099 income earners since the 67,000-page tax code favors …
Physicians should stop being afraid of getting audited by the IRS
The tale of two physicians
There once was a physician who had no idea what personal finance was. She was living the American dream, but with lots of student loan and credit card debt. During her residency, she paid minimums on all her debts, but had neither a savings account nor a retirement account.
During fellowship, there was a slight jump in her income, and she used that as an opportunity to …
What this physician wish she knew about money as a young doctor
Six months have elapsed since exiting the pageant of my hospital via retirement. Like many people who devote countless hours to professional activities, some mandated, some by compulsion to detail, this windfall of unstructured time, no matter how well planned, can prove disorienting. My final destination was a small inner-city hospital, preceded by twenty years affiliation with an enormous comprehensive regional center. The people there, near where I live, have …
Will medicine become a young person’s sport?
Once again, we find ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Increasingly, providers are being pressured to improve access for our patients, which we certainly think is a good thing. We want our patients to come in, whether it’s for their annual physicals, for ongoing routine management of their chronic health conditions, or for acute issues best handled in the …
Why increasing patient volume won’t work
I barely remember walking out of the hospital that day. After a nearly 30-hour residency shift, I was in a bit of a daze. I trudged across the main parking lot, staring absently at the coffee-colored snow beneath my boots. I have no memory of reaching the crosswalk to the main road or even stepping on to it. What I do recall is the loud, startling screech of brakes.
“Did you …
Physician suicide is an occupational health crisis
I hate repeating myself. It’s an impatient quality, but I wish everyone could just hear me the first time. With a surgical personality, I prefer to convey things in the most efficient way possible, i.e., “Blade!” or “Kelly, please.” So when folks ask me to repeat myself repeatedly, I feel my inner voice protesting, “This is so inefficient, ahh!”
If someone repeats something they have already told me, and catches me …
Why physicians should repeat themselves
An excerpt from Rethinking Health Care Ethics.
Health professionals have not been well served, or at least not well enough served, by the academic community of bioethicists — the philosophers, theologians, lawyers, and social scientists of various sorts who have come to dominate, worldwide, the diverse fields of health care …
Why bioethicists fall short of connecting with clinicians
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
Whether you recently completed your residency as an emergency medicine (EM) physician or are ready to move on from your current position, potential locations for work are undoubtedly a big factor in determining which emergency physician jobs you’re willing to consider.
If you have children, location is especially important, because you want …
5 things emergency physicians should consider when looking for jobs
I’m often asked to write and speak about being a woman physician. I don’t know that any of my male physician colleagues have ever been asked to talk about being a male physician. Many hospital systems have women in medicine groups, and there’s now a National Women Physicians Day. Again, don’t know of the same for male physicians. There’s a part of me that struggles with this, but I …
The personal and professional challenges of women physicians
My story makes even the hardened among us cringe … but I am not here to tell you that story. My real story begins after.
In order to stand up for my values, I recently walked away from a booming practice. What I had built felt sacred to me, almost miraculous. As a pediatrician, I realize it is no small matter that parents entrust me with the care of their children. …
A physician leaves her practice and finds beauty in the struggle
We don’t talk much about passion in medicine anymore.
What is your passion for medicine? What was it that sparked your initial desire to pursue this career instead of another? What is the impact you are called to make as a doctor?
I was speaking with a friend who is not in medicine and asked why he picked his chosen field. He is knowledgeable and skilled at many different things. He admitted …
What is your passion in medicine?
Chicken tikka masala, two samosas and a bowl of yellow dal steam on my hotel table. There is no fight over the last samosa — they all belong to me. The room is quiet and peaceful. My pager does not ring. The paper plates do not need washing. No child clamors for my attention. After savoring dinner, the internal debate starts over whether I should work out in the hotel …
Is locum tenens your dream gig?
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In the last few years as documentation demands from insurers have skyrocketed, the buck has been passed straight into the lap of physician’s offices where insurers have saved billions of dollars even as they’ve slashed physician reimbursements by even more.
Is it any wonder our offices are chaotic, patients complain about long waits, insurance issues, referrals, pre-authorizations, and copays? Do we have to do it all? Why? Simply because we were …
What’s the one thing doctors can learn from corporations?
My story starts like most individuals who enter into medical training. I had the dream that being a physician was my life calling to bring physical healing to others. While I did gain medical knowledge and skills, I also unintentionally developed a jaded mentality. I was quickly introduced to the reality of medical culture in which public embarrassment from “pimping” (a series of difficult intentionally unanswerable questions posed to medical …
Compassion, respect, and camaraderie are keys to fight physician depression
It’s no secret that in today’s health care market, insurance companies are calling the shots. As a pediatrician in private practice for almost two decades, I’ve seen insurance companies transform into perhaps the single most powerful player in today’s health care landscape — final arbiters whose decisions about which procedures or medications to authorize effectively end up determining the course of patient care.
Decisions made by insurers, such as MassHealth, have …
How an insurance company auditor tried to destroy a physician’s career
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Much has been discussed in recent years around the concept of “practicing at the top of your license.” But what does this really mean?
The most common definition is that each medical professional’s routine activities should utilize the full extent of their education, training, …
Practice at the top of your license: What does that really mean?
When I was a third-year resident, I was invited to join a practice owned by a doctor who had once been my chief resident. This was considered by all of my fellow residents to be the plum job in town, and I was thrilled. The doctor, whom I shall call “John,” was smart and funny and had a huge practice that he had purchased from a retiring physician. We figured …
A physician’s ex-business partner is in prison. Here’s what this doctor learned.
The numbers are in. Medscape National Physician Burnout, Depression & Suicide Report 2019 indicates that the rate of physician burnout is still at an all-time high. Forty-four percent of physicians reported feeling burnt out.
According to the report, 50 percent of women reported experiencing burnout versus 38 percent of men. Carol Bernstein, MD, a psychiatrist at NYU Langone Medical Center, states that the reasons for the difference …
2 questions every physician should ask themselves
There is a lot of discussion about what to do about physician burnout. The conversation includes debates on the actual incidence of burnout, why it varies among specialties and work environments, who is responsible for it and what can be done to combat it.
What matters is the solution for the physician on the front line, who is experiencing disconnection and disillusionment with a career they spent most of their life …
5 ways for physicians to fight burnout
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