Within 5 years 45% of all current psychiatrists will have retired.

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I’m sure society and healthcare organizations in general will start to realize a psychiatrist’s value. Pay will increase, as will student loan forgiveness benefits. Psychiatrists will be given statutory liability protection to ward off frivolous lawsuits to keep them practicing and encourage more doctors to move into the field.

That, or 2 year RNs will be granted prescribing privileges by lawyers in state legislatures who don’t understand anything about medicine or psychiatric care.
 
nexus73 said:
I’m sure society and healthcare organizations in general will start to realize a psychiatrist’s value. Pay will increase, as will student loan forgiveness benefits. Psychiatrists will be given statutory liability protection to ward off frivolous lawsuits to keep them practicing and encourage more doctors to move into the field.

That, or 2 year RNs will be granted prescribing privileges by lawyers in state legislatures who don’t understand anything about medicine or psychiatric care.
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I feel like we are seeing a mix of this right now. NPs and PAs are being trained and hired like crazy and pay has been very slowly creeping up for employed psychiatrists. Lots more telework gigs available, too. Not much legal protection yet. If organizations can replace us with cheap labor, that will be their preference. Fortunately/unfortunately very ill patient severity make that somewhat difficult. I'm oversimplifying, of course.
 
Do you have a reference for this statistic? Would be helpful to be able to cite the publication in talking with administrators in our system. Thx.
 
sfgucadoc said:
Do you have a reference for this statistic? Would be helpful to be able to cite the publication in talking with administrators in our system. Thx.
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I am assuming they are referring to the fact that 55% of psychiatrists are over the age of 60. It is not true that 45% of current psychiatrists will be retiring in the next 5 years. Many psychiatrists continue to practice well into their 70s and 80s (as is currently the case) and in fact one of the reasons why there are so many psychiatrists over 60.
 
splik said:
I am assuming they are referring to the fact that 55% of psychiatrists are over the age of 60. It is not true that 45% of current psychiatrists will be retiring in the next 5 years. Many psychiatrists continue to practice well into their 70s and 80s (as is currently the case) and in fact one of the reasons why there are so many psychiatrists over 60.
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Also why we have really low own occupation disability insurance rates, it's actually pretty hard to be still a) alive and b) unable to practice psychiatry in a meaningful way. What this says about standard of care is left as an exercise to the reader.

That said I am sufficiently persuaded by literature on late life and work that they will pry my 8-10 hour per week private practice out of my palsied, liver-spotted hands.
 
clausewitz2 said:
Also why we have really low own occupation disability insurance rates, it's actually pretty hard to be still a) alive and b) unable to practice psychiatry in a meaningful way. What this says about standard of care is left as an exercise to the reader.
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Gotta love it when the standard is the ability to fog up a mirror held directly under the nose. Frankly I'm looking forward to some of them finally retiring although that leaves the rest of us to sort through inappropriate benzo regimens their patients have been on for 30+ years.
 
Jules A said:
Gotta love it when the standard is the ability to fog up a mirror held directly under the nose. Frankly I'm looking forward to some of them finally retiring although that leaves the rest of us to sort through inappropriate benzo regimens their patients have been on for 30+ years.
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****, that's what I spent half my time doing now.
 
Many physicians entered psych during the "Golden Age" of medicine (1950-1975). There were no prior authorizations, minimal insurance company issues as most patients paid in cash, and all you needed for your private practice was a front desk person, who handled scheduling, billing, and refills.

Look at things today. Psych hospitalists do rounds, and you have to have a separate staff person just to handle PA's. Percentage wise, fewer MD's are going into psych than before, and many retire early. I have a psych MD friend who retired at 50, as he was just tired of all the administrative BS he had to put up with.
 
Biggest load of garbage ever. Been hearing that since I started residency 9 years ago. It never really materialized even after the stock market improved.

Pumping out “providers” like rabbits is only gonna lead to saturation and worsening generational tension.
 
Midwest Headshrinker said:
Many physicians entered psych during the "Golden Age" of medicine (1950-1975). There were no prior authorizations, minimal insurance company issues as most patients paid in cash, and all you needed for your private practice was a front desk person, who handled scheduling, billing, and refills.

Look at things today. Psych hospitalists do rounds, and you have to have a separate staff person just to handle PA's. Percentage wise, fewer MD's are going into psych than before, and many retire early. I have a psych MD friend who retired at 50, as he was just tired of all the administrative BS he had to put up with.
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anecdotal.
As for Admin, all physicians have to deal with this.
Lastly, not sure why u think psychiatric inpatient units didn’t round before? How would you see your patients? Lol.
 
Sushirolls said:
Stock market crash may push some near retirement back into prolonged working.
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Yeah... this. Was initially projected to retire within about ~10 years of finishing fellowship. Now is not looking so certain. 🙁
 
michaelrack said:
I've been slowly selling off my equity holdings, and plan to start buying again on dips once the Dow is below 20k
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Timing the market is always a gamble. If you really have to sell off assets, sell bonds and use this opportunity to buy stocks on discount 😉
 
Anyone who was "about to retire" should have had enough of their assets converted to bonds and cash that their retirement plans should not be completely screwed by the recent downturn.

If you're planning to retire within a couple of years and yet all of your assets and future income are dependent on a S&P index fund, you're doing it wrong.
 
I would agree that the relatively high average age of psychiatrists does not necessarily mean many are on the verge of retirement. At 58 I'm the whippersnapper in my department by over a decade. I've been through more than one market crash so my plans to retire at any given age have been pushed back more than once.

Since the original question concerned what it might mean to early-career psychiatrists if nearly half of the psychiatric workforce evaporated in 5 years, let's look at what-if. You'll be working your butt off trying to see endless numbers of patients. That could be awful in some contexts and wonderful in others. Much would depend on ones ability to set and enforce limits, how entrepreneurial one is, and so on. I don't think there are sinecures in medicine any more, but I prefer being employed, working at community hospitals, and being able to afford toys and travel. I do not think there's much chance that any psychiatrists alive today won't be able to meet goals like that during their lifetimes.
 
I wonder if anyone has any figures for Forensic Psychiatrists. I saw quite a few grey and white hairs at the last AAPL conference. As an expert witness, I don't have to worry too much about mid-level encroachment. Main competitors maybe forensic psychologist and neuropsychologists but there are cases which require or have a preference for physicians. In larger cases, I often think it is better for an attorney to have both psychiatric and psychological/neuropsychology experts.

If many forensic psychiatrists do retire, I could see the hourly rate to go up, particularly since attorneys pay neurosurgery expert witnesses up to 2k an hour to testify.
 
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