I have been asked to cover skin brachytherapy cases for a local dermatology group. I would love the extra income, but I've never done any skin brachy - has anyone done this, and were there specific problems I should be aware of? Also, they'd like to know what I think would be fair compensation. I can't find this info anywhere. any thoughts? Thanks.
Skin brachytherapy question
- Thread starter iradi8u
- Start date
I'd say $3000 / day is fair. That's fair compensation for selling your soul to dermorads.
I know it's a new Elekta machine, and I'm in Texas.
Not selling my soul, thank you. A few cases a month in an area with a ton of people in their late 80s and 90s, for whom Mohs is a bad option.
I'm kidding with you. But these urorads and dermorads always need a radonc to operate them. At the end of the day they take income/autonomy away from radonc run practices.
I sold my soul, made a ton of dermatology friends, and now that Xoft is done, I have a whole group of new referring physicians who actually learned the benefits of RT. Now I get
legitimate referrals for skin CA that were never there before.
I'm surprised to hear they are starting this in Texas. I was told there is no set reimbursement for the procedure...that the MAC takes cases on a case-by-case basis. Xoft, etc. made
essentially no inroads in Texas for that reason. So to answer your question, I don't think there is much precedent to give you advice on reimbursement. For what it's worth, though, typical Xoft rates were 1000-1200 for a half day and up to 2500 for a full day.
legitimate referrals for skin CA that were never there before.
I'm surprised to hear they are starting this in Texas. I was told there is no set reimbursement for the procedure...that the MAC takes cases on a case-by-case basis. Xoft, etc. made
essentially no inroads in Texas for that reason. So to answer your question, I don't think there is much precedent to give you advice on reimbursement. For what it's worth, though, typical Xoft rates were 1000-1200 for a half day and up to 2500 for a full day.
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2004
- Messages
- 11,709
- Reaction score
- 11,786
Pretty compelling compared with a full day of locums work
Also due to the fact that most locums company keep a decent percent of the money as well.
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2013
- Messages
- 812
- Reaction score
- 547
High correlation between this thread and the luxury cars thread.
Get that skin brachy $$$ to buy that Tesla?
Get that skin brachy $$$ to buy that Tesla?
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2004
- Messages
- 11,709
- Reaction score
- 11,786
Massive investment by a VC group in Texas is leading to the construction of multiple Xoft-only brachytherapy centers throughout Texas. I'm not sure how they're going to get their referrals, but they're pretty confident they have a large number of dermatologists ready to refer. Most likely will be allowing dermatologist investment in centers, even though no such compensation will be offered for the radoncs. IF they are successful, I'm sure it will spur the development of something akin to CA sooner rather than later.
I also was surprised. Seems like a risky venture, but what do I know. I DO know dermatologists have no business operating these machines on their own, so I'm happy these Xoft centers are at least trying to hire radoncs. I think it has been a massive failure on the part of ASTRO to regulate these, but they don't seem to pick their efforts based on what I would like to see, so what can you do.
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2004
- Messages
- 11,709
- Reaction score
- 11,786
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2004
- Messages
- 4,658
- Reaction score
- 5,067
Skin e-brachy is a low-risk, high-reward type activity. Typically you can get a Xoft unit (or its equivalent) for around $500k which is obviously a fraction of what you would pay for an accelerator. Also, these units are relatively low maintenance and don't require dedicated dosimetrists or a full-time physicist. This is why they were so successful in CA before Noridian brought down the hammer.
I suspect the folks in TX started this process based on the gangbusters growth of skin e-brachy in CA. However, they may have passed the point of no return by the time reimbursement cuts were implemented. I find it hard to believe that whoever administers Medicare in TX won't similarly nip reimbursement in the bud.
I suspect the folks in TX started this process based on the gangbusters growth of skin e-brachy in CA. However, they may have passed the point of no return by the time reimbursement cuts were implemented. I find it hard to believe that whoever administers Medicare in TX won't similarly nip reimbursement in the bud.
