WHY DO DOCTORS CHARGE WHAT THEY DO??

It is a fact that doctors are willing to work long hours for patients, whom they do not know, for an income that is not bad, but is much less than other professions command. Many people admire the fact that doctors are willing to work for 24 hours at a stretch, sometimes getting up in the middle of the night for emergencies. It can be an arduous lifestyle that can disrupt any person’s personal life, something that one cannot compensate for even with money.

On the other hand, quite a few patients also feel that doctors charge too much. They envy the cars that some doctors drive and the fact that they might take off an occasional week to travel abroad. Many resent the fact that they have to pay thousands of rupees for procedures that take just a few minutes.

Also, it is a well-known fact that the fee charged by doctors can vary considerably, not only from doctor to doctor, but from patient to patient as well. It remains one of the greatest mysteries of medicine for patients that why doctors charge what they do.

People would tend to be much happier if medical costs were transparent. The truth is that the amount that doctors charge can sometimes be a mystery even for doctors themselves. Many doctors are not very good business people, and the inconsistencies in the fees they charge reflect that.

Since doctors are used to working for free or very low wages during their medical training, young doctors often are quite uncomfortable collecting fees for their professional services when they start practicing. Most doctors use market criteria to set their fees and charge what other doctors are charging, which can be a useful rule of thumb.

Many doctors, who are idealistic when they are young, charge enough to make a comfortable living so that they can cover their expenses and still have enough to keep the family happy. This is simple to do in some cases, but extremely difficult in others, where doctors often start their practices often owing lakhs of rupees in debt as loans to pay for their medical colleges.

Even some experienced doctors who are financially quite sound and willing to charge just enough to cover their costs, enough to cover their staff salaries and other costs, but often end up underpaying themselves. Ironically, even though these doctors charges less because they feel that they don’t need much money to be contented, it often mistakenly conveys to patients that the quality of services may not be as good. This is the reason it is quite common to see an escalation of prices.

Once a doctor in a region increases his fee, the others often do so as well. Conversely, if one doctor drops his prices, others will do so as well in order to stay in competition. Doctors who are ably business minded take a practical viewpoint. They conduct a market survey to determine how much patients in their community are willing to pay for their services and set their prices accordingly.

Some doctors deliberately charge higher fees than the competition, especially the senior, more experienced doctors, who often feel that they deserve the additional income because of their experience and expertise. Others do so because they want to create an air of exclusivity about them, because they know that patients often misinterpret high fees as being equal to a better quality of service. This approach is especially prevalent in fields such as cosmetic surgery. However, a higher price is not always better and on the other hand, a lower fee does not always mean a bargain either.

In developed countries such as the United States where third-party payers dominate the market, the ability for doctors to set their own fees is practically zero. They pretty much have to charge what a government-run insurance plan or private payer is willing to offer. As medical insurance becomes more common in India, this trend may become more common here, too, with the insurance companies starting to call the shots.

While many doctors pride themselves on their professional skills and take pride in the fact that they are not bothered about money, the fact remains that medical private practice is also a business, and unless doctors learn how to charge the right amount for their services, they often end up underpaying themselves.

In the long run, undercharging for one’s services may mean that a doctor would not be able to invest in updating his professional skills or buying state-of-the-art equipment, both of which can enhance the medical care that he provides. He could then put himself at a risk of losing his valuable patients to corporate hospitals, which are extremely good at maximizing their profits.

It is important to find the right balance so that one can enjoy his financial income as well as his emotional income. Earning money is not a sin just because a person is a doctor, and if a part of the revenue that one brings in is used to improve patient care, it’s a win-win for both the doctor and his patients.