Friday, July 23, 2010

Add a D to the MD, Drop the M for an S

It is hard enough to get qualified applicants to go to medical school, much less into surgical specialties but now this one takes the cake. We had one of our interns leave the surgical program, to go to dentistry. Not to be an oral surgeon, to be a general dentist. I cant fault his decision making, he put it this way. He will be his own boss. There is far less regulation. Obama hasnt messed with it yet. It can be cash pay and you dont have to deal with insurance if you dont want. Dental emergencies are not covered by EMTALA. If you dont pay, you dont get squat.

He was our sharpest intern.

3 comments:

Chrysalis said...

Very sad, but true. They can close the office any time they like. No weekends (Saturdays only if they like), no holidays, no nights. Go boating, golfing, and have time to enjoy their families.

I don't know as the work is nearly as fulfilling and interesting though.

SeaSpray said...

Well ...it must've been disappointing to lose one of your sharpest interns.

I would think that unless he is working with only financially affluent people that he would need to take ins.

We have 2 dental plans ..one with out health ins and one we pay separately for through husband's work. We only use the latter one because the health ins dental only covers basics where the other covers the big things. BUT ...there is a limit and if getting anything pricey ..we still sometimes have to hold off because can still be a few hundred or so out of pocket for one tooth needing major work. And the plan does kick in the bulk of it.

Veterinarians. Now they don't have to worry about insurance at all.

SeaSpray said...

Did you see this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/europe/25britain.html?_r=2&hp

Not sure I understand it all ..what it will actually mean for the providers and patients, but what I do glean out of it is that they are getting out of a health care system that is failing and we are moving full steam ahead into it.