The PMD Critical List: Each Doctor Brings $1.6 Million in Revenue to Hospitals

A new report tabulates the revenue generation of the average hospital physician. The number might surprise you. That story tops this week’s PMD Critical List. Also making the list: An article criticizing opacity regarding physician discipline, and changing viewpoints on marijuana use.

• Average Doctor Nets $1.6 Million Per Year for Hospitals (Forbes)

A new analysis from physician staffing firm Merritt Hawkins shows a single doctor on average brings in $1.56 million in direct net inpatient and outpatient revenue to a hospital. Obamacare, an improving economy, and an aging population of Baby Boomers has brought record US hospital admissions.

• What You Don't Know About Your Doctor Could Hurt You (Consumer Reports)

Smear job or fair criticism? From the nation’s top consumer advocacy organization comes this: “Thousands of doctors across the US are on medical probation for reasons including drug abuse, sexual misconduct, and making careless—sometimes deadly—mistakes. But they're still out there practicing. And good luck figuring out who they are.”

• Physicians Increasingly Want to Make Marijuana Legal (The Washington Post)

A large group of physicians, including a former surgeon general and faculty members at top US medical schools, has formed the first national organization of doctors to support pot legalization. The American Medical Association remains opposed the outright legalization of marijuana.

• Doctor Guilty in Historic Home Healthcare Fraud (Dallas Morning News)

In what federal investigators are calling the biggest home healthcare fraud case in history, a Texas doctor has been found guilty of “selling his signature” to process almost $375 million in false Medicare/Medicaid claims. Dr. Jacques Roy had lured “Medicare patients with promises of cash, food stamps and groceries.”

• The Dirty Doctor? (Daily Mail)

Nearly 40% of physicians (and nurses) failed to adhere to standard policies put in place to prevent infections, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Infection Control. A similar percentage also neglected to comply with safe injection procedures.

• 8 in 10 British Doctors Are Mentally Ill (Mirror)

New research by Cardiff University revealed that more than 80% doctors in England have experienced symptoms of mental illness—but only 40% have been honest about them. “The simple fact is that pressures on doctors are ridiculous at the moment,” explains a top UK physician.

• Doctors Unsure About End-of-Life Talks (NPR.org)

A new John A. Hartford Foundation poll finds that some barriers remain for doctors to have end-of-life planning conversations with their patients. Since Medicare began paying for it in January, about 15% of doctors say they have billed for the service.

• Fat? Your Doctor Can’t Help (US News & World Report)

“Obesity hides in plain sight.” Even though they in an ideal position to offer help, many doctors report they don't have time to talk to patients about weight loss strategies. “We need to really work on the medical community accepting obesity as a disease and not as a character flaw.”

• Where do Primary Care Physicians Earn the Most? (Becker’s Hospital Review)

According to new salary data from The Medicus Firm, the average IM ($238,975) makes more than an FP ($210,192), the average FP in rural areas makes $227,261, the average primary care signing bonus is $19,714, and the top average PCP salary is in the Central US/Upper Midwest and the South/Southwest.

• Should Patients Record Their Doctors’ Visits? (The Wall Street Journal)

A timely essay from a practicing physician/medical professor about doctoring in the digital age: “The first time a patient’s family member obliquely directed her cellphone at me, I was concerned. She explained, “I’m recording this so I can share with our son.” I was taken aback, but as I have thought about it more, I have come to see the recording as net positive. Not all doctors feel this way.”