Simple economic lessons of pathology

[LADoc00]

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Part One:
People sometimes wonder why are things like GI and derm are so in demand.. Why dont blood bankers make the same cash? Why does my male PD sometimes dress in women's clothing??


The answer to all these ?s is based on a very very simple concept. Medicine is reimbursed predominantly through CPT billing codes. Before someone flames me, YES there is additional income generated through management or directorship fees (relying on skills NO ONE will ever teach you in residency mind you....but that is another story). But in general most of your money comes from the # and VALUE of those CPT codes you do everyday..

Now you could work your ASS off everyday but if you only turn in 5-6 codes at the end of the day, it wont be worth crap. Some other guy could pull down 50 codes in 2 hours and make more than you in a week.

The reason why derm is so crazy is that time per CPT code is so minimal.

 

[djmd]

The reason why derm is so crazy is that time per CPT code is so minimal.

That is the reason why it is the fellowships are so in demand.
The fellowships are protected by ridiculous layers of terminology and mixed up terms that are based more clinical than histological...
Making it difficult for the non-derm path to deal with the dermatologist, and allowing dermatologist to become dermpath after one year. (but that is a whole other thread).

Can you imagine, a gastro thinking that one year could make them GI-path? Or anything else along those lines?

 

[LADoc00]

That is the reason why it is the fellowships are so in demand.
The fellowships are protected by ridiculous layers of terminology and mixed up terms that are based more clinical than histological...
Making it difficult for the non-derm path to deal with the dermatologist, and allowing dermatologist to become dermpath after one year. (but that is a whole other thread).

Can you imagine, a gastro thinking that one year could make them GI-path? Or anything else along those lines?

The reasons why clinical derm has hijacked dermpath are complex but suffice it to say its because of greed. Clinical derm is really a unique bird in the sense they are the only clinicians who recieve FORMALIZED pathology training as part of every curriculum, everywhere.