non-reimbursed work in pathology

[scienceguy19]

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Why in the world can't autopsies be reimbursed?

It can take a considerable amount of time to do a good dissection, look at slides, and write a final report. It can be physically intensive labor too. And we're doing something beneficial for the family (I guess).

And with the CP side, being a director of a laboratory is also not reimbursed by insurance or government.

Yeah some doctors deal with the non-reimbursed time of doing paperwork and the phone calls to the patients, but they were already your patients. Seems like a lot of our autopsies are patients who died on the ambulance or the ER. And the pathology department has to use their resources and manpower to do the autopsies for free. It really sucks. Our specialty always gets thrown under the bus.

 

[deleted314957]

Why in the world are you doing them for free?

 

[Pathwrath]

Why in the world are you doing them for free?

Exactly.

If you are not getting reimbursed for hospital autopsies via Part A, you need to stop doing them.

 

[2121115]

Other specialties do TONS of unreimbursed work.

And yes, you should be getting paid to do autopsies. If you are not, you should have a talk with your hospital admin.

 

[scienceguy19]

What I mean to say is that pathologists have contracts with hospitals to sign out the surgical cases.

The pathologist's salary will be dependent on the money they collect from the surgical cases. But they agree to do autopsies for free as part of the contract.

Exactly.

If you are not getting reimbursed for hospital autopsies via Part A, you need to stop doing them.

 

[pathstudent]

What I mean to say is that pathologists have contracts with hospitals to sign out the surgical cases.

The pathologist's salary will be dependent on the money they collect from the surgical cases. But they agree to do autopsies for free as part of the contract.

Maybe you do. Our contract says how much the hospital pays us to do an autopsy. It's not enough to make it worth our while but it is at least something.

 

[scienceguy19]

Out of curiosity. what is the usual range for the amount?

 

[pathstudent]

Out of curiosity. what is the usual range for the amount?

No f'n clue what the usual amount is. Personally I would say a fair amount is 2000. We only get paid 1500. Fortunately we only do 5 a year. 20-25 years ago my group did 250 a year. Amazing how hospital autopsies have plummeted.