Do Physicians Simply Serve as Middlemen for Specialists and Patients?

There was a day when a doctor unexpected took his name place off his successful medical office in California to have it bolted to a corporate office. He found that his private practice had become boring and routine. Talking and listening had become the extent of his job as a doctor. The high cost of malpractice coverage forced his group of associated physicians to cease offering particular services such as obstetrics, surgery and treating complicated medical issues. All he did was see a patient then forward them to a specialist.

These days you will find the doctor working for a well known pharmaceutical company. The fact that an increasing number of physicians have also ventured into the corporate world means he is hardly unique. Growing tired with the annoying aspects of their job such as government interference, insurance costs, the fight for research grants and the academic politics, these doctors are growing in number. There was one city that was thrilled to hire them as they're want to make improvements to product safety and employee health. The lure of business has worked strongly to entice these doctors who still work with the medical world in drug research or occupational health.

The financial rewards for those working for the city can equal what a doctor made in private practice. With salary and benefit packages often competitive with that of a private practitioner, corporate doctors also enjoy the additional benefits of company paid malpractice insurance, time off for teaching and study, travel and regular 9 to 5 work days.

Both professional and trade groups are estimating there are thousands of physicians who have become full time corporate M.D.s here in the U.S., a bit less than 2 percent of the overall doctor population. You will find there is also a huge amount of occupational physicians, these doctors will cover anything from employee health to the safety of a workplace and product. There are over 10,000 physicians filling these roles on a part-time basis. You will find these physicians working at insurance companies as claims consultants and medical underwriters, as well as in the pharmaceutical field.

For those who do work in corporate medicine, the job title many are seeking is that of chief medical director. One doctor, already working in a private practice, took a job as occupational physician for a restaurant chain in order to make some extra money. The doctor had to work at a high pace, sometimes examining as many as 60 people an hour. Later, with some reluctance, he gave up his medical practice to become medical director for two movie studios. He found with the medical director job, he could do much more with the patient care because they weren't worried about making the payment.

Corporate physicians in the past were viewed as those who had been unsuccessful in private practice. They were not considered "real" doctors, but just someone who handed out aspirin and band-aids. However, due to the change in laws, as well as attitudes, concerning occupational and product safety, corporate physicians have gains a greater respectability and involvement. A large New York telecommunications company's medical director has issued a statement, talking about how uplifting it is to be regarded as an authentic figure in the community.

New physicians at the start of their careers can do really well in the corporate world. Older, established physicians might sacrifice their bottom line, but will do so for the chance to practice medicine again. In terms of quality of lifestyle, as well as career earnings, some of the corporate doctors believe they are the real winners in the deal. Many of my peers, in the earlier years of private practice, considered occupational medicine a rather foolish choice for anyone to make. A particular physician believes that many doctors have grown jealous.

Those corporate doctors earning the most had to leave their white coats behind. One example of this is of a doctor who never once practiced medicine, and is a multimillionaire at the age of 78. That doctor's first million dollars, which he generated while he was still a medical student, was the direct result of the revival of his father's laid up drug business. Following medical school graduation, he purchased a surplus army field hospital, which he erected in the impoverished Ural Mountain area in the Soviet Union. While there, he learned that food rather than drugs were most desperately needed, and worked to import grain which led to the establishment of a network that furthered his business enterprises in the future.

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