Replies to post #75027 on Biotech Values

[Biowatch]

Re: The economic impact of the recession of hospitals.

Losing your clerical staff sounds bad. You didn't have much spare time before this, right?

Hospitals in the Baltimore-Washington, DC, area are losing money. Some hospitals in poorer areas risk closing as many of their patients have no insurance.

In the last few months, I had several conversations about medivac helicopters (with an MD, a paramedic, and a fireman.) (Disclaimer: This is hearsay.) They said that:

* trauma patients from car accidents probably have insurance
* gunshot and knifing victims probably don't have insurance
* George Washington Hospital is too close to the White House to get medivac helicopters, so they don't get as many severely injured, uninsured patients.

I'm not sure how they decide where the medivac goes with patients, but hospitals prefer patients with insurance.



The following article is an interesting read on troubles that doctors and hospitals face.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/HealthPolicy/11237

e.g., Affects of the credit crunch on doctors:

- Older doctors may put off retirement because the market hurt their savings,

- Student loans are hard to get, hurting med students (& med schools???)

- More doctors are going into lucrative specialties. (The general practitioner is a vanishing breed.)

[apljack]

OT: Struggling with a healthcare job in this recession

RPh- I appreciate your thoughts. To add, I just got a post from a pediatrician friend who mainly works as a clinical study ctr. physician. He ALSO reports difficulties within the pharma study business. Given that this had been the holy grail of deep pocketed funding, I am glad that I am just on the periphery of that business!

He sent me the following:

"The task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted"-Kierkegaard

Have a great day

aj

PS: I too have an HSA. The account works well for me and my relatively healthy family, and it's nice to have dental and eye care (the entire family is near-sighted) taken care of even if it means cutting multiple hundreds of dollars in checks. I like xrymd's practice idea of stocking employees' HSA with deductable sums. Thanks for the idea as I will be looking to start a group practice soon.