<p>Plus trips in on the weekend. i could list all day the Christmases, birthdays, concerts, etc, missed or threatened to be missed, despite my H’s desperate attempts to be part of things at home.</p>
<p>I would have to agree- the families of doctors we know, have had to depend a lot on friends to step in for their kids- as hours are long and not always easy to plan around.
Spouses of doctors also seem to have to curtail their career choices, because they can’t count on their partner- frankly being available to help out. reliable child care is hard to find- plus there are alot of things that you just want at least one parent to be available for</p>
<p>A careful reader will note that I wrote “more often”, which is true. I doubt that many doctors are out of town 120+ day’s per year, which is not uncommon in financial businesses.</p>
<p>Doctors are likely to feel their time is not their own [my dermatologist excepted, who seems to have hired a physicians assistant to do his job] but I’ll stand by my assertion. Flexibility in domicile, and time with family are better for MD’s than for the high powered financial guys. Neither of them is optimal.</p>
<p>Only the doc will earn a tenth (probably less) of what the financial guy does, unless said doc is president of the hospital…then he might rival earning power of the Goldman Sachs guy.</p>
<p>StickerShock,
I guess the opportunities for young people in engineering/science are in fields other than the ones where my husband and I are employed (such as the examples you gave of IT and biomed). My husband’s field is industrial water treatment chemistry and equipment (which includes all types of industries such as power plants, steel mills, refineries, food manufacturing, paper mills, etc.) and it seems like few young people are being hired there. I am a scientist for a government agency, and it is well known that governments at both state and federal levels are “aging” and that there will be a huge loss of institutional memory when a huge percentage of the government professionals who are in a small age bracket all retire within a short timeframe.</p>
<p>I don’t think gov’t data goes that high, ie the household income data has one category of “$250,000 and over,” so perhaps Mr Wolff is using some dubious estimating techniques. </p>
<p>The subtext here is that I refuse to believe that I have fallen so drastically behind my peers!!!</p>
<p>There is a huge difference in salary between “high powered financial guys” and the typical MBA finance grad who works as say, the director of auditing for a mid-sized firm. Somewhere in between the two, much closer to the typical MBA, is the average doc. Docs make tons of money if they own labs, consult with biomed firms, etc. I think we can agree that all these fields put pressure on a family & require sacrifices.</p>
or MRI, CT facilities, etc. But those docs have to be businesspersons as well as physicians. Some of them are very good at both, some aren’t. Plain ol’ doctor isn’t the path to success some imagine, these days.</p>
<p>The opportunity for docs to make money via their own facilities is a curious one, and one that is always under scrutiny. There has been a neverending battle between some docs and companies and third party payers such as medicare.</p>
<p>The reason is simple: Data has consistently shown that docs who own other capabilities, such as labs, imaging etc., use more of what they own. It is in the doc’s self interest, but not necessarily the interest of the patient, and certainly not society’s interest. Many of these things are actually “sold” to docs as profit building opportunities by companies. </p>
<p>A word of advice to prospective patients: Be wary of ancillary services if the doc has a stake in the use of the ancillary service. This can be tough to know, but be suspicious if the referral is internal, or to a non-brand name. Others may want to add, as I’ve personally avoided this stuff.</p>
I think the days of rampant abuse are gone. Managed care may be a pain at times, but it has kept docs honest. Virtually every test nowadays has to be accepted as part of established standard procedure for diagnostics & treatment if it is to be covered.</p>
<p>Recently I was talking with one of son’s chem profs. As I sat in his office, the professor had to run make copies and left me with a journal to browse through. There was an article listing average salaries/incomes for PhD’s in chemistry and physics in the various geographic regions and employment sectors. I was very surprised at the salary range. Chem PhDs earned average of 60-70k in most areas of country–thought it would be much higher. The professor commented that you must love the field, don’t go into it for the money because most likely you won’t find it.</p>
<p>SS, this is not just about testing. It is about invasive procedures, including minor surgery. It is about poor quality control. It is about excessive use of testing.</p>
<p>So called managed care may have stopped the rampant abuse, as you mention, but not questionable medicine practiced poorly.</p>
<p>newmassdad–the separate labs are not much better. At least if it is inhouse you don’t need to make more appts and travel to another site. Many good docs like to keep it inhouse FOR quality control.</p>
<p>Wrongo, SS. Physician/Hospital overcharging and abuse of Medicaid is still a major problem. I have witnessed and experienced poorer delivery of services as a result of managed care.</p>
<p>I guess I’m a wet blanket here but after watching my father tirelessly work on Wall. St. for 30-odd years, and then going to work there myself after college I say those who can stand the long hours can have the $$. I watched families fall apart because the parents were knocking themselves out with 80 hour weeks, barely making it home on the train before it was time to go back there. They were some of the brightest people I’d ever met, but all the $$ in the world wasn’t worth that lifestyle. Thing is, when you’re brought up in a place like NY where “everyone” works in finance you don’t even think that there are options.</p>
<p>Allmusic, we are talking about physician owned labs, radiology, MRI & PT services and the like. There has been an enormous improvement in oversight. Medicaid & Medicare reimburse the docs so poorly that many no longer will take those patients. </p>
<p>Hospitals are examined under a microscope to keep length of stay within accepted ranges. Case managers are breathing down the staff’s throats. So your personal assessment of poorer delivery of service is a seperate issue from unscrupulous docs ordering unnecessary tests at their personally owned labs.</p>
<p>Have to agree. Could have moved for a more prestigious job/title with more money, more hours, more travel.</p>
<p>In the big picture, just wasn’t worth it to me. Better quality of life for self and family to stay put in a slightly less prestigous job, with less hours and travel.</p>
<p>I saw Donald Trump on CNN the other night, and he said that he considers someone to be “rich” when they have assets which generate 2MM annually at a minimum.</p>
<p>“all the $$ in the world wasn’t worth that lifestyle.”</p>
<p>Well, I think all the $$ in the world would be worth that lifestyle for 3-5 years in your 20’s. If you could retire after that, it would be well worth it. But that’s usually not the option on the table; you have to work your way up to that level of pay with many years of 80-hour weeks.</p>