Study: Doctors' pay falling
Some experts say lower wages might drive brightest away from medical careers

We have little control over managed care fees or medical malpractice premiums.
We do have control over making the practice more efficient.
I encourage everyone to go to the local EHR shows, sign up for DOQ-IT, talk to friends who made the leap.

Automation can = decreased staff costs, decreased office hours and increased P4P bonuses. SV

"John Gibson has been a doctor for more than 20 years. He works 12 hours a day, or longer, and he hasn't gotten a pay raise in years.

"In real dollars, my in come is ... about the same as it was eight, nine years ago," said Gibson, a Nashville internist. "Adjust ed for inflation, my real income has definitely dropped."

Doctors may be well off compared with the bulk oftheir patients, but a new study says fees physicians get from the government and private insurers aren't keeping up with inflation.

Last week, the Center for Studying Health System Change said net incomes for physicians fell from an average of $180,930 in 1995 to $168,122 in 2003, a decline of about 7 percent, when adjusted for inflation.

The Tennessean