Rx for money woes: Doctors quit medicine

Some physicians, fed up with the costs of their practice, are ready to hang up their stethoscopes and shift careers.

 

I knew a physician, an OB/GYN, in the Detroit area that stopped practicing several years ago because his insurance costs were getting clost to $200,000 per year.

 

We have a serious health care problem in the US and malpractice insurance and lawsuites are a couple of the biggest problems. The only thing worse would be to allow the government to have any control of health care. They've shown they are not capable of managing anything; Medicare? Medicade? Social Security? You name it, the goverment makes it cost more while you get less benefit.

-DrMark

Dr. Tara Wah closed her ob/gyn practice in Tallahassee, Fla., last year, saying that she could no longer "afford" to stay in business. Wah currently is not practicing medicine.

Doctor shortage: Who should fill it?

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Some 5,000 patients suddenly found themselves without an ob/gyn last November when Dr. Tara Wah closed her practice in Tallahassee, Fla.

Wah, 55, informed her patients in a letter that she could "no longer afford to make ends meet."

After 24 years, "I'm working longer hours than ever," she wrote. "Insurance payments for patient care have stayed virtually the same for the last 15 years, while the cost of doing business, including health insurance, staff salaries and supplies have risen."

The rising cost of malpractice insurance, particularly for her specialty, was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"My malpractice insurance was $125,000 a year, and going up," said Wah. "The only way to get the extra money was to cut back on my salary."

But it wasn't always like that. Being a doctor was once thought to be a path to a cushy lifestyle. Six years after she started practicing, Wah hit her "peak" income year in 1990. Then she took a pay cut every year from 1993 onward, to eventually take no salary for two months prior to permanently shutting her office.

Wasted skills

Wah no longer practices medicine. Instead, she designs and repairs jewelry. "I feel guilty. I dream about [medicine]," she said. "[But] I am so angry. I think, 'What a waste of my training.' "