Eleven percent of physicians attribute financial losses to practice issues such as business problems, reimbursement changes and a change in practice setting, according to Medscape's "Physician Wealth & Debt Report 2023."
Issada Thongtrangan, MD, an orthopedic and neurological spine surgeon at MicroSpine in Scottsdale, Ariz., connected with Becker's to discuss where physicians are losing money.
Note: This response has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Dr. Issada Thongtrangan: I lost revenue mostly from declining reimbursements and inflation of the [cost of] supplies and expenses. Those are easy to see on paper. The more important aspect is the loss of revenue that cannot be directly seen as a real number. Those are time spent to appeal the denial claims, and doing a peer-to-peer for patients' care. Insurance carriers nowadays deny almost anything and the most common reason is "not a medical necessity." This became more and more of a theme, and it took away my time to take care of the patients.