Thursday, March 24, 2011
QD: News Every Day--Office-based doctors are economic powerhouses
The nation's office-based physicians generate $1.4 trillion in total economic output, 4 million jobs, $833 billion in wages and benefits, and $63 billion in state and local taxes, according to a report. While office-based physicians are largely made up of solo and small-group practices, their economic impact compares to the hospital industry in all fifty states and is more than nursing homes and home health.
The report, sponsored by the American Medical Association, analyzed the economic value of direct impact by each physician (for example, employee wages) and the indirect impact in the industries that are supported by physicians’ offices (for example, when employees go shopping with their wages).
There were nearly 640,000 office-based physicians in the U.S. as of October 2010. On average, each office-based physician supported $2.2 million in economic output, 6.2 jobs (including the physician's own), $1.3 million in wages and benefits, and more than $98,000 in state and local tax revenue across the nation.
"In these times of rapid change in the health care industry it is important to understand how changes affect office-based physicians," the report reads. "It shows how strong physician practices not only ensure the health and well being of communities but also critically support local economies and enable jobs, growth and prosperity."
Office-based physicians generated more economic impact and more wages and benefits than the fields of higher education, home health, law, and nursing homes in 2009. Only in Washington, D.C., did the legal industry boost the economy more than office-based office-based physicians--five times as much, actually. Hospitals hired more people than office-based physicians, but offices had better wages and benefits.
Data were generated from three databases, the AMA Masterfile of physicians, the Medical Group Management Association's Cost Survey of physician expenses, and the Minnesota Implan Group's models on employment multipliers and tax revenues.
Labels: careers, health policy, practice management, primary care, Workplace issues
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Albert Fuchs,
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Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP, graduated from the
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Zackary Berger, MD, ACP Member, is a primary care doctor and
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Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
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DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
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Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
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Everything
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Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
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Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
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Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
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Mike Aref, MD, PhD, FACP, is an academic hospitalist with an
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David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
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Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of
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KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
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Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
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Elaine Schattner, MD, FACP, shares her ideas on education, ethics
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Alexander M.
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More Musings
Rob Lamberts, MD, ACP Member, a med-peds and general practice
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Reflections of a Grady
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Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
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The Blog of Paul Sufka
Paul Sufka,
MD, ACP Member, is a board certified rheumatologist in St. Paul,
Minn. He was a chief resident in internal medicine with the
University of Minnesota and then completed his fellowship training
in rheumatology in June 2011 at the University of Minnesota
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Technology in (Medical)
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Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
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Peter A. Lipson,
MD
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. The blog, which has been
around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
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Why is American Health Care So Expensive?
Janice
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adopting a career in hospital and primary care medicine as a locum
tenens physician. She lives in Idaho when not traveling.
World's Best Site
Daniel Ginsberg, MD,
FACP, is an internal medicine physician who has avidly applied
computers to medicine since 1986, when he first wrote medically
oriented computer programs. He is in practice in Tacoma,
Washington.
Other blogs of note:
American Journal of
Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical
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A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
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Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
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of the day.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat
Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
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1 Comments:
How interesting. Most of us office-based "economic powerhouse" internists are still reeling from the predictions of the demise of small practices under the ACA reform provisions, as published in the Journal. A bill the ACP helped pass and is begging Congress not to undo.
How are we going to replace all those jobs and taxable income? Why is my professional society supporting my destruction, or at least not considering the consequences? FACP = Fooled by the American Congress and President.
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