Why are so many doctors leaving medicine?

In this video, Dr. Webb talks about why so many doctors are leaving medicine.

Background: Surgeons are facing a nearly 4.5% cut to the Medicare conversion factor (CF). Without immediate congressional action these cuts will take effect January 1, 2023.

Status: Congress must pass legislation stopping the 4.5% cut – addressing anything less than the full cut jeopardizes surgical practices and Medicare patients.

Call to Action: Write your Senators/Representative today and tell them to protect Medicare patient care by stopping the full 4.5% Medicare payment cut.

WASHINGTON, November 3, 2022 – Members of the Surgical Care Coalition commend efforts by a bipartisan group of over 40 U.S. Senators, led by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and John Barrasso, MD (R-Wyo.), who are working to prevent Medicare cuts by the end of the year. The 46 Senators recently authored a letter to Senate Leaders Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressing their serious concern regarding the stability of Medicare payments and calling on Congress to address this vital payment challenge. The letter follows the introduction in the U.S. House of Representatives of H.R. 8800, the Supporting Medicare Providers Act of 2022, which addresses the nearly 4.5% cut to the Medicare conversion factor (CF) anticipated to take effect on January 1, 2023.

“There are serious risks facing millions of seniors’ access to surgical care in less than two months—cuts to surgical care will affect how the surgical care team is able to care for patients across the country,” said Michael Dalsing, MD, President of the Society for Vascular Surgery. “As this threat looms near, it is now vital that Congress advance H.R. 8800 to protect those most at risk from the threats posed by the continued withdrawal of investment in surgical care across the country.”

The letter acknowledged the significant financial hardship providers are facing, stating, “financial uncertainty due to pending payment cuts will only compound these challenges” and “it is essential in the coming weeks that we make sure providers have the resources they need to keep their doors open for seniors and families.”

Without congressional action, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and other physicians face a nearly 8.5% Medicare cut, which includes the nearly 4.5% cut to the Medicare CF and a 4% Medicare cut stemming from the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act. This is on top of the 2% Medicare sequestration cuts that were reinstated this year and the staggering increases in medical inflation that health care providers across the country are facing.

To see Dr Webb as a patient, please contact:
Antonio J. Webb, MD
Orthopedic Spine Surgeon
South Texas Spinal Clinic
9150 Huebner Road Suite 290
San Antonio, Texas 78240
Office: 210-614-6432
Fax: [phone]

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[antoniowebbmd]

Surgeons are facing a nearly 4.5% cut to the Medicare conversion factor (CF). Without immediate congressional action these cuts will take effect January 1, 2023.

Status: Congress must pass legislation stopping the 4.5% cut – addressing anything less than the full cut jeopardizes surgical practices and Medicare patients.

Call to Action: Write your Senators/Representative today and tell them to protect Medicare patient care by stopping the full 4.5% Medicare payment cut.

[Gary-sxox]

My dad was a pediatrician and retired 43 years ago. This is important to note because when I asked him if he is going to miss it. He angrily said, ‘I’m tired of working for insurance companies’.

[Pearl]

To all physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, CNAs, therapists— everyone in the healthcare field: thank you for all that you do.

[nancyhoward]

My heart doctor quit. I really miss her. I felt she didn't just shove a lot of prescription medicines at me. I was floored when she told me to take magnesium! Here is a doctor who was prescribing something other that drugs, something that helped my body be stronger, not torn apart by side effects from drugs.

[susanrolls]

You hit the nail on the head!! Nurse of 29 years here. It is now a bureaucratic mess. What I studied takes a back seat to laws. These laws written by folks that never engaged in active care. The burn out is real!! I will be leaving also. I understand how these doctors feel.

[alisonsmith]

I’m a resident. A close friend reached out to me just yesterday about quitting her residency program due to toxic work culture. It broke my heart.

[justinthompson]

Malignant cultures in residencies coupled with ungodly and unfair work hours/call and lack of sleep/personal time. Change is coming.

[donnaallgaier-lamberti]

The overall medical healthcare system is so broken.... Our general surgeon (works at the local hospital) faces a surgery schedule of 8 to 10 surgies one right after another all day long on surgery day. This has to be absolutely exhausting. I watched our surgeon go from looking young, happy and fit to looking exhausted, drawn and gray in the 10 years we have known him. I don't know how anyone can maintain this without burning out. My heart goes out to him....

[NSoutherland_WellnessMD]

5 years ago I left. Went into Direct Primary Care after 24 years. Opted out of Medicare and refuse to go back to accepting insurance. I spend an hour with my patients and have time to educate. The struggle to get people to understand that insurance does not mean better quality primary preventive care is real. Medicine has changed. I got tired of diagnosing and treating disease and prescibing medication. I tell patients insurance companies dont care about me or you. I love being a doctor, i hate what I had to do to get here and the way they treat you as an employed physician.

[boboliai]

I’m a doctor and ill tell you why because it sucks as a profession.
Declining reimbursement, loss of autonomy, corporatization of medicine, medical/legal hassles, lack of a real advocacy organization for the profession (the AMA is a joke that actually works against the profession) and I could go on for paragraphs.

But lets be honest with ourselves the biggest problem we have is with ourselves. We don’t stick together, we turn on our fellow physicians for the almighty buck and we sell out our junior colleagues.

Its amazing to me how a group that is so intelligent and literally holds life and death in its hands is so weak politically and allows itself to be manipulated so easily.

The day I leave medicine will be one of the best days of my life!

[TheINFJChannel]

One of my besties is a family physician. She used to get cranky often. She quit in August and now is a happy stay at home mom. When I asked why she left her 6-figure job, she said her life was full of pushing paper and finding billable codes for needed care. She felt like the big insurance companies were her boss when her patients needed her first and foremost. But now, just a few months in to her new life, she's less cranky and the Mary I once knew has returned 🥳

[jmseipp]

In the 1970’s a questionnaire was sent out to doctors asking if they thought they’d made the right decision in choosing medicine as their profession. 75% said yes, they felt they’d made the right choice. More recently, (pre-Covid), the same questionnaire was sent out and 75% of doctors felt they’d made the wrong decision. One of their main complaints was that they felt like little more than pill pushers for the pharmaceutical corporations! ‘Yeah, We got a pill for that!’

[Lawlesslarry]

Former medical student here: i went to IT field and making the same or more than a FM in my field. Best decision I've made. The US medical system is in a path of self destruction for the reasons this doctor has said.

[gail]

Insurance companies has too much control. My plan has denied my back surgery three times. So I’m living with additional back pain. I will be sending this to my representative today. Thanks Dr Webb

[marquiesriley]

My wife is a nurse and their experiencing the same thing…shortages of nurses, burnout, to much paperwork, etc….she comes home sometimes just bogged down and super emotional due to workplace toxicity…the medical field here in the US will definitely suffer mightly in the years to come….

[connielentz]

I was a primary care general internist and I retired almost 10 years ago at 64. Even then the interference from insurance companies, the ludicrous electronic medical records and incompetent administrators was making my life hell. When I graduated from med school in 1980 I had only $22K of debt for all of my education. I was fortunate to have a good pension and other retirement benefits. I believe I entered medicine at the end of the golden era for primary care doctors, and therefore for patients. What is apparent to me in retrospect is that the whole system was falling apart during my entire career. Covid is just the last straw. Now as I age the problem is finding care for myself.

[cdogg]

I'm an electrician. Was heading to medical school and had quite the realization. Glad I got out when I did.

[lh]

I'd like to see a total strike. The insurance companies and corporate hospitals have to go.

[alykgirl]

I’m so sick of these lawless insurance companies!

[haroldpierre]

These changes have not occurred since the COVID pandemic. They have been occurring for years. I entered private practice almost 20 years ago and I remembered back then encountering Medicare cuts, private equity buyouts and hospital takeovers. I think what is happening now is the fact that all of these factors have hit the breaking point. And just wait when AI advances to the point that software replace physicians. I implore physicians to be entrepreneurs and be their own bosses.