How Doctors Get Nickel and Dimed Out of Money

Watch this video. It doesn't refer specifically to doctors, but it pretty much sums up how doctors get shafted out of money by patients, the government, and the insurance industry.

Imagine that the waiter, the sales clerk at the video store, and the barber are actually physicians, and the customers are patients.

Think about it.

Patients ask for discounts all the time or argue with you about their bill. In many cases they get services for free, you take all the liability, and get paid nothing.

Example: emergency medicine physicians who are required to treat patients regardless of ability to pay but don't get reimbursed by the government who created that law.

Insurance companies haggle with you, also. If you don't have enough patient history or physical exam findings checked off on the chart or the electronic medical records, you get downgraded to a lower code and get paid less.

And, of course, the government creates laws that limit what they will pay you also. And then ding you every April for not paying your "fair share" in taxes.

I'm not sure which is more hysterical—the video or the fact that doctors tolerate all this.

You could try to singlehandedly solve these problems on your own, but that's highly unlikely. Instead, give yourself a chance to make working optional so you don't have to "shut up and put up" if you don't want to.

How do you do that?

You build up enough assets and get your finances and investments in order.

Simple? Yes.

Easy? No.