Why I left Private practice

You will probably care for the same mix of patients within a given area. Intrinsically, caring for patients is rewarding regardless of practice settings. However, there is a vast difference in your own quality of life when you are employed in a community health care center in comparison to working in a private practice. Despite the misconception, this dramatic improvement in quality and balance of life is achieved without sacrificing your annual income.
I spent 6 years too long in a private practice to realize that the only way to manage the ever rising overhead costs of practice operation is to see more patients per day and in a faster stressful pace. Overhead costs include your rent or mortgage, property tax, business and malpractice insurances, EMR and information technology expenses, employees salary and payroll taxes, health and disability insurances, staff retirement contributions, billing and accounting expenses, collection costs, licenses and CME fees, utility costs, ground maintenance and cleaning expenses, contract labor to cover employees vacation times, and finally vaccine, drugs and lab supply expenses. In terms of total costs, it is not unusual to incur a 300-350 k dollar expenses for a physician with full time employee ratio of 1:4 in a private practice. That means you have to see at least 15-20 patients per day just to break even with the costs (depending on your coding habits and the collection ratio the number may vary a little). Because of the smaller group, most likely the negotiated reimbursement is lower from insurance companies to the private practitioners. Can you imagine the extra unpaid hours you will spend to mange the administrative aspect of all those tasks? In addition, add to that the unpaid hours that you spend for your much needed vacation and CME times while the fixed costs of practice continues even in your absence. As a result, most private practitioners are overworked and forced to see 35 or more patients per day to manage expenses and generate the desired income.
So you ask why I left private practice.
Community health centers allow you to focus only on patient care by managing away disruptive administration tasks, covering your overhead expenses and paying you a salary comparable to that of private practice.

Tune in to my next blog to see the comparison between community health centers and hospital owned clinics.

Sam Saadat, M.D.