From our perspective as physicians, you know, the practices are not as burnt out. You don’t find people in our situation really getting burnt out like you do see in the fee-for-service where they’re hustling. I think this is very sustainable and the quality of life is excellent and you get to do what you love practicing medicine but you still have a life outside of that. I wouldn’t be still here after thirty years if I didn’t believe in it, thrived in it.
Initially, where doctors did not want anything to do with managed care, I’m seeing now that they're trying to get into those programs cause they see the benefits in terms of lifestyle, financial return and just overall well-being.
What I get to do on a day-to-day basis is focus on medicine, focus on the patients. I don’t have to worry about the business side of it. I don’t have to worry about running an office and dealing with insurance. It’s all sort of taken care of by the rest of the staff and that is the way it should be. It allows you to focus on what you were trained to do.
You have to see less patients, you can be more proactive with them, spend more time with them, which I think is very important.
When you’re seeing forty patients in a day, you know, did you do your best? I don’t think you can. I really don’t. I don’t believe that we can work to the best of our ability seeing forty patients in a day.
In a normal day, I’ll see between twelve, at most fourteen patients, spread out over a nine-hour day so it’s really manageable. I don’t ever feel rushed.
Plus, you have more time to spend with your families and you can really just focus on the day-to-day care of your patients and again, have the time to do it. We don’t worry about billing and collecting so we can really spend our time mostly focused on keeping our patients well.
You’re rewarded for keeping them healthy and keeping them out of the hospital.
I think that’s why all of us went into medicine, right? To get the patients what they need.
As a physician, you’re rewarded for doing what you were trained to do, what you were passionate about doing when you decided to go to medical school.
You’re aligned financially with what’s important to you as a physician, in your core, which is the well-being of your patient.