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05/13/2022 Paul Kesselman, DPM
What would you recommend as a career for your child? (Allen Jacobs, DPM)
I am one of three podiatrists in my large extended family along with many other MD specialists. Of all the podiatrists in my family all of my generation, none have children who went into podiatry or medicine. As for all my relatives who are MD specialists (there are at least 9 in my generation, only one has two of four children who went into medicine.
There are two MD couples, neither of whom have children who went into medicine with one of the MD couples being involved as chair of a department at a large tertiary care hospital. As for my undergraduate and earlier schoolmates, none of those who went into any form of medicine have children who went into medicine.
I do have one relative whose child went into veterinary medicine, which cost her a fortune. While she is happy with her career choice she realizes it was an economic disaster for which she will have to work many years to recover from.
One podiatry school classmate has a son who is a PA and another who is a research pharmacist. I consider their choices to have been the smartest choices as they have secure employment with guaranteed financial futures.
Would I have done podiatry again? Likely no, But back in the early 80s or before when many of us started, we were able to practice independently as many MD/DO. And as Dr. Jacob's noted, our parity was based on our patient outcomes. To a large degree it still is and no legal parity is going to change whether your MD/DO colleagues continue to refer to you. That really is no different than any other small business. Your success is based on what services you deliver and the quality of those services. And that is all on you, just as it is when you choose to consult with an MD/DO for your patients or yourself.
My biggest fear as we all age is our need for physicians for ourselves and our family members. Many of my physicians are now doing what most of my generation are doing, retiring or becoming lost in the shuffle of institutional large practices. Unfortunately a few have passed onto the great beyond.
So it appears that medicine has become big business and just as we need to cherish connections with business people in other areas of our lives, we need to cherish the same relationships with others. The DPM of the future whether an MD or DO or still DPM will nevertheless still be a part of a big business picture. For the newbies they will never have experienced practice as we did and in some respects it will be easier for them, because they did not have what we had. I'm not sure if there are any positive solutions to this issue, but hearing the same stories from MD/DO apparently makes DPM have parity, at least when it comes to the future.
Paul Kesselman, DPM, Oceanside, NY
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05/13/2022 David E. Samuel, DPM
What would you recommend as a career for your child? (Allen Jacobs, DPM)
On target once again Dr. Jacobs. Making a good living is one thing. Daily fighting with insurance companies, etc. can suck the life out of you. What we do is rewarding. The daily grind to achieve that and make a solid living gets worse. For my 3 boys, there is absolutely a better way to make a living than the energy expended on non-patient care. I would not recommend unless this was something they absolutely were hard fast and committed to medicine and then if would be allopathic for sure. None have chosen medicine, although one took his pre-med degree and decided on device sales and is/will continue to do quite well. The parity thing is funny. Parity how? I don’t feel any less than any of the doctors I work with and who refer to us. We have mutual respect and work together for our patients’ well-being. This I am quite happy with and I agree with Dr. Jacobs, I have parity here. Let’s talk REAL parity. Where it really counts. Stop with the, “I’d do this no matter what” stuff. I wonder how many PA podiatrists, and I will bet other states, know that we get 25% LESS if not more, than ANY ORTHOPOD, or Pod working in an Ortho group, doing and billing the EXACT SAME CODES? Where is and has been the APMA/PPMA on this over the 30 years I’ve paid my dues?
I’m on the back nine of practice. How I would have loved to get paid equally over all these years. To me, I think it is inexcusable to not have made this the highest of priorities to “legislate” equal pay for equal work. Isn’t that only fair? How many PA pods have screamed about this over the years, or is this something that is not known by the majority ? I was speaking with a colleague the other day and they had no idea. Is this not known by the majority of us?
I have no idea about other states, but I would suggest others, especially younger docs look into this, as to not end up looking back at 30 years of practice, doing great work, and getting paid significantly less than the ortho doc down the street, that hasn’t seen a foot besides their own in 10 years. This includes common ankle procedures, like a simple fibular fractures, scope etc. 25% LESS or MORE. Parity starts here. David E. Samuel, DPM, Springfield, PA
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