06/20/2022    Robert Kornfeld, DPM

"Who wants to be a podiatrist" (Michael J. Trepal, DPM

Dr. Trepal is upset that an applicant to NYCPM
withdrew his or her application because of a post
regarding a negative view of the current state of
podiatry. Dr. DiFeo asserts that it is purely the
love of helping others that should motivate one to
become a podiatrist. A number of years ago, I
lectured to a room with about 200 podiatrists in
attendance. I asked, “Please raise your hand if you
love being a podiatrist”. TWO podiatrists raised
their hand.

I was taken aback but not surprised. Do we continue
to ignore the elephant in the room? Why do this if
you cannot make the kind of living commensurate
with the amount of education and on-going training
required of today’s podiatrists? Sorry Dr. DiFeo,
but altruism does not pay the bills and certainly
would not motivate me to become a podiatrist today.
I, too, might withdraw an application if I knew the
level of dissatisfaction among practicing
podiatrists.

The yearly applicant pool is down for a reason and
let’s not be so smug as to blame it on disgruntled
podiatrists. That is the symptom of the problem. We
all know the truth. Insurance companies and
Medicare have turned podiatrists into beggars and
thieves. In my mind it is NOT about parity. It is
about our willingness and zeal to cooperate with
insurance participation that has conditioned the
public to not value our services. It is about
insurance companies taking over the standard of
care, creating absurd guidelines for coverage and
throwing pennies at us for our hard work.

Sorry guys, but this is no longer a desirable
profession to most young people and I don’t blame
them. It was a VERY different profession when I
graduated in 1980. My very first Medicare
bunionectomy in private practice paid me over $2000
40 years ago. What do they pay now? Around $400?
All 3 of my children are not in the medical field
and are thriving. The harder they work, the more
money they make. They feel valued for their
expertise and are not in fear of chart audits,
claim rejections or malpractice cases. They don’t
have to hire staff to chase after the money they
are owed.

I don’t know how many times I’ve written on this
forum about insurance destroying our beautiful
profession but I’m sure it goes back over 20 years
at least. Private practice is a dinosaur. Today’s
doctors are employees on salary, beholding to a
system that can’t afford to pay them what
yesterday’s doctors earned. The glory days are
over. Medical care of all forms has degenerated in
this country. Snap diagnoses are made due to time
constraints. Adequate care is sometimes hard to
come by. It’s a mess. And if this post causes
another applicant to withdraw, I say good for that
young person. At least there are some critical
thinkers left.

Robert Kornfeld, DPM, NY, NY

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