BizQuiz: Do you have a clue about doctor pay? (Answer 5a)

5) A – Incorrect.

With adequate client demand, appropriate doctor staffing, and medically driven care, these usual suspects shouldn’t be a problem.

I don’t recommend incentive-based formulas when the caseload isn’t large enough to keep all the doctors in a practice busy. But in practices with a sufficient caseload, I’ve seen only a few situations where competition—or service selection based on the dollars—occurred. Usually doctors don’t have time to “turf” cases, and a bigger problem than doctors who drive up the costs is doctors who look for ways to save the client money.

You must never lose sight of why you do what you do—your patients’ health and well-being. The medicine must drive the finances, not the reverse. If a doctor focuses on what’s best for the patient, the dollars will follow. And if you do employ a doctor who treats patients based on the financial result versus the medical result, that doctor definitely doesn’t belong in your practice.

So, you missed this one... Now you know. And if you want to learn more about doctor pay, you might be interested in our extensive list of articles.