I'm looking at all my expenses as a business man. $432 an hour is a great gig. Not that one has customers 365/24/7 and works those hours. Still, I understand why I drive a Civic and my doctors drive 50K trucks.
BTW, I don't begrudge the price; however, I wish they'd cut me a break when I pay cash out of my HSA. And some do by giving free samples.
It's funny, concerning the topic on this thread, a few of my doctors decided to use a pollster to ask questions to better their customer service quotient. I think the patients all remarked about the staff being cold and indifferent (makes the waiting room so much more pleasurable) and the wait time. My urologist fired the dead weight. My GP made an attempt to paint and carpet the waiting room.
, I wish they'd cut me a break when I pay cash out of my HSA.
When we get enought of us on HSAs things will chnage.....
Those numbers are gross receipts. Assuming the charges are rarely paid in full by all the insurance companies.
The doctor is required by Federal Law to have one fee schedule and to charge all his or her patients the same fee. They are allowed to make contracts with insurance patients under those laws, but not allowed to discount more than 10% for "cash and carry" patients.
Some docs have been fined hundreds of thousands and even jailed for discounting fees below the fees set by Medicare. Most of us are used to being threatened for antitrust action and with RICO if we discuss our actual fees with another doc or if we want to work outside of Medicare regulatons.
See Association of American Physicians and Surgeons for years of examples.
Here's an overview
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/06-21-99/vo15no13_overdose.htm
http://www.aapsonline.org
specifically
RICO - http://www.aapsonline.org/newsletters/jan94.htm
Coding felony - http://www.aapsonline.org/newsletters/july94.htm contains this excerpt from Medicare instructions to their undercover investigators:
"" ``One tape-recorded, undercover visit can make an entire case....Closely supervise each undercover visit...to maximize inculpatory conversations...You want to prove a pattern so that you can use RICO forfeiture to financially dismantle the fraud'' (Medicare Compliance Alert, 3/28/94).""
Antitrust - http://www.aapsonline.org/newsletters/sept95.htm