Subaqua Sternal Rubs

Just when I am excited about entering the field of health care, there are some that are contemplating a career shift, calling the current evironment "unsustainable."

Behind Georgia Tuttle are 25 years of practicing medicine.

In front of her are career questions she never figured on asking.

"At 51, I feel that I'm in my prime," said Tuttle, a private practitioner in New Hampshire. "I could practice another 20 years. But now I'm looking at a new computer system for my office and wondering `Should I invest in that?' I love my Medicare patients, but I'm asking, `Should I keep taking Medicare patients?' "

Tuttle's fears are similar to those expressed by the American Medical Association about a federal plan to cut Medicare reimbursements to doctors by more than 4% in 2006 and by 26% through 2011. The cuts would come as expenses related to operating medical offices continue to rise, physicians say.

According to data from the Medical Group Management Association, 66% of income at the average physician practice today goes to overhead, including rent, liability insurance, office staff salaries and medical supplies and equipment. Roughly 34% of income goes to the physician's salary.

"As physicians' overhead costs increase by 15% (over the next five years), Medicare payments are scheduled to be cut by almost twice that," AMA President-elect J. Edward Hill said last week as the AMA kicked off a lobbying campaign to stop the planned reimbursement cuts. "This is unsustainable for a physician practice."

Read more at Modern Physician (registration required)

While my goal in becoming a physician is not to make gobs of money, (instead I would like to use my knowledge/skills to help people during one of the hardest periods of their lives - critical medical emergencies), however, medicine still needs to be a financially viable option. I will have over $200,000 in debt when I finish medical school, which depending on where interest rates go, could translate to over $600,000 that I will have to pay back.

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