Ortho billing comparatively low in BC?

[ffatt]

Am I missing something? If they are spending the kind of hours weekly as other surgical specialties and not to mention the years of training why don't their billings stack up to say Neurosurgeons or Cardiac Surgeons. Is this a temporary reflection of the job market or an already established glut of surgeons in the system? I am not well-versed in the dynamics of the field, as you can probably already tell, but could part of the reason that some orthopods are also receiving payment through private means such as WCB compensated work related injuries or those well-off retirees looking to skip the lines on Hip Replacements?

 

On another note, I was reading the CMA document (passed around here regularly, will post if need be) that gives you an overall prespective of each specialty. It mentions a majority of orthopods working in sole practice. Anybody care to comment on just what this means? Do orthopods perform major procedures out of hospitals with their own team of an anesthesiologist and other physicians?

[ffatt]

Anyone? Lots of views no replies. Your input is much appreciated.

[AnxiousBoy]

I just finished an away rotation at UBC and asked a bunch of question on this matter. First off, I'm sure you are aware of the billing schedule found on the msp site.

 

Why do orthopod rate seem relatively low? Probably because it doesn't take very long to operate. $200 for 20 min (actual operating time) of arthroscopy or $800 for 1.5h of ligament reconstruction sounds comparable to me.

 

You can utilize private clinics as well. They generally get billed about 3x msp.

 

I think you should be more worried about job security more than anything else. There just isn't the OR time to accommodate the new grads. As it stands now, orthopods have about 1 OR day per week and even that is shrinking. They tell me they can work 1 day of office and fill that OR time, and so the option is to go play golf the rest of the week or go private. Do you think they'd be willing to share that limited OR time with a new person?

[ffatt]

Yeah, I read a couple of articles on orthos and other surgical specialties facing a dismal job market. Now, this is a political question, but is the OR time dependent on which procedures MSP favors or those that yield best results for the buck or simple that there is a glut of orthos available but equal OR time is available to all surgical specialties?

[AnxiousBoy]

I'm sure different health authorities have different ways of doing things, but from what I learned about this one, it is the hospital administration who determines how to divide the block funding from the government. Certain surgical specialties would get more than others depending on how they see fit. Once the number of OR days are set for that department, then the department divides up the time amongst each other. The department controls the hiring so they can have a lot of people or very little. Lots meaning they have to divide up the time with each other while little meaning they have a lot of time but will also inherit a lot more responsibilities like being on call more often then you want to.