My guests on this podcast are Drs Nii and Renee Darko who paid back significant educational loans nearing nearly $670k over a 3 year period in order to take back control of their financial futures.

Nii is a trauma surgeon and Renee is a Ob/Gyn and they worked very hard to pay down this debt.

We talk about how they acquired so much debt. What was the moment they realized that this debt was out of control and how they changed their life to pay down this debt. They also talk about their backgrounds in relation to finance and how that impacted their lives. We also talk about the decision to pay down debt vs investing (which is a common question and its a different answer for everyone) and now what their plans are after finishing the debt paydown.

Drs. Nii and Renee Darko

They also have other ventures which they are now able to spend more time on. Nii hosts the popular Docs Outside the Box podcast, and Rene runs a premed advisory service called Premed Strategies and Coaching where she helps advise aspiring medical students. They also run a locums agency called Equal Access Health and a blog called Keeping up with the Darkos.

I hope the Darkos have inspired to you take a look at your finances and also pursue alternative ventures that maybe outside of medicine.

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

Part 2. Private Equity buying medical groups — What’s the deal?

Ep 42 is part 2 (Ep 41 is part 1) of the episode talking about private equity buying medical groups.

There is an increasing amount of private equity purchasing/partnering of medical practices in the US. We are seeing in in a variety of fields such as radiology, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, dermatology, just to name a few. I wanted to explore why this is happening.

My guest on this episode is Kurt Schoppe, MD a radiologist in Dallas, TX. Kurt is part of the American College of Radiology Economics committee and has experience in the private equity world.

On this episode we talk about:

Kurt Schoppe, MD

What is private equity?

Why would they be interested in medical practices?

1. Fragmentation of medical practices leads to market opportunities.
2. They are good at logistics, operations and can increase efficiencies to improve returns.
3. They can have access to capital to make discount purchases.
4. They see healthcare as a more predictable way to make money.

Why would a practice want to sell to these firms?

1. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Other groups have done so we probably should also.
2. Thinking that your group doesn’t have the expertise to handle a changing healthcare reimbursement model
3. Money right now (particularly for senior partners)

What are they looking for when deciding to buy a practice?

What does this mean for medicine as a profession?

What does this mean for younger physicians?

Here is the article Dr. Schoppe referenced about corporate veterinary practices. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-01-05/when-big-business-happens-to-your-pet

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can find Dr. Schoppe on twitter @kurtschoppe

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

The topic on this episode is the increasing amount of private equity purchasing/partnering of medical practices in the US. We are seeing in in a variety of fields such as radiology, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, dermatology, just to name a few. I wanted to explore why this is happening. This is part 1. Make sure you listen to part 2 also.

My guest on this episode is Kurt Schoppe, MD a radiologist in Dallas, TX. Kurt is part of the American College of Radiology Economics committee and has experience in the private equity world.

On this episode we talk about:

What is private equity?

Why would they be interested in medical practices?

Kurt Schoppe, MD

1. Fragmentation of medical practices leads to market opportunities.
2. They are good at logistics, operations and can increase efficiencies to improve returns.
3. They can have access to capital to make discount purchases.
4. They see healthcare as a more predictable way to make money.

Why would a practice want to sell to these firms?

1. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Other groups have done so we probably should also.
2. Thinking that your group doesn’t have the expertise to handle a changing healthcare reimbursement model
3. Money right now (particularly for senior partners)

What are they looking for when deciding to buy a practice?

What does this mean for medicine as a profession?

What does this mean for younger physicians?

More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.

You can find Dr. Schoppe on twitter @kurtschoppe

You can follow me on:

twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group.

Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list.

Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.

The Medscape Salary and Wealth/Net Worth Survey

Your income is the biggest contributor to your overall financial health for most people. As physicians we don’t always know what we are worth. It is important to look at the market data.

My guest on this podcast is Leslie Kane of Medscape business of medicine who is in charge of the annual physician salary and net worth surveys.

Leslie Kane, MA

We talk about trends in physician salaries. What are the highest paid fields? We look into primary care vs specialty fields. We also look at the persistent gender gap in salaries and what are some possible causes vs misconceptions.

We talk about why there are so many physicians with relatively low net worth by age 65 despite relatively high incomes. This is a problem and I am critical of the number of physicians who are in this situation. While some may have valid reasons, 25% of physicians with net worth less than $1M by age 65 is too much.

Also we discuss whether physician salaries should be discussed publicly and whether its a good thing or not. Will patients or other non physicians use it against us?

Here are links to the surveys. (You will may need to login or subscribe to Medscape (Free))

Salary and Compensation report

Net Worth and Debt report

Let’s continue the discussion over at the Doctor Money Matters private FB group (you need to request membership).

Follow me:

Twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Negotiation for MDs

How are your negotiation skills? Do you love bargaining or do you cringe at the thought of trying to make a deal.

Negotiation is a critical tool in our careers and can literally make or break our financial and professional futures. My guest Robert Feldberg, MD talks about important topics in negotiation as they relate to physicians.

What is a matrix?

Robert Felberg, MD

What are the models of negotiation

What can you do to improve your negotiation skills?

This episode is vital for early career and mid career physicians. Listen to Dr. Feldberg talk about the types of tactics that you can use to improve your bargaining position, who you are actually negotiating with, and how to do without seeming selfish.

We talk about negotiations for compensation and also with insurance companies and even your family.

Finally he recommends a book for negotiation that I had not heard of called Bargaining for Advantage by Robert Shell. (Note if you buy through this link, I get a small referral fee)

You can find out more about Dr. Feldberg and his negotiation course at NegotiationMD.com

as follow his blog where he also delves into some financial topics.

Let’s continue the discussion over at the Doctor Money Matters private FB group (you need to request membership).

Follow me:

Twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Doc G  This is part 2 so if you didn’t listen to part 1 (ep. 37), do so first.

How did this internal medicine physician achieve a high net worth ($6M) at a young age? How was he able to 5X his income from the time he started practicing to now as a primary care physician in a large metro area?

Many physicians are resigned to the work, work, work mentality but don’t have a plan to increase their professional income. Investing is great and passive income is fantastic, but why not get paid appropriately for what you trained all these years for? Doc G talks about how he learned to optimize his workflow at all stages in his career and was constantly assessing what brought him income and joy and tried to remove those parts of his practice that didn’t.

While we are constantly learning about medicine via journals, conferences, presentations, etc, how many of you are consistently optimizing your own practice? It’s important because it will bring you greater job satisfaction and decrease burnout. The corporate practices do this but not for your benefit, so its vital that you assess how you practice.

It’s also great to see that primary care physicians can become very successful financially in this era of medicine.

Let’s continue the discussion over at the Doctor Money Matters private FB group (you need to request membership).

You can follow Doc G’s blog at www.diversefi.com where he goes into depth on these topics. You can also follow him on twitter @DocGDiversefi

This is the rockstar finance ranking of the bloggers by net worth. 4 of the top 5 are physicians, but Doc G is one of the younger ones. One of our previous guests is also on there. Dr. Cory Fawcett. (Episode 5 about debt)

Follow me:

Twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

Doc G  This is a 2 part episode, so make sure you also listen to episode 38 (part 2)

How did this internal medicine physician achieve a high net worth ($6M) at a young age? How was he able to 5X his income from the time he started practicing to now as a primary care physician in a large metro area?

Many physicians are resigned to the work, work, work mentality but don’t have a plan to increase their professional income. Investing is great and passive income is fantastic, but why not get paid appropriately for what you trained all these years for? Doc G talks about how he learned to optimize his workflow at all stages in his career and was constantly assessing what brought him income and joy and tried to remove those parts of his practice that didn’t.

While we are constantly learning about medicine via journals, conferences, presentations, etc, how many of you are consistently optimizing your own practice? It’s important because it will bring you greater job satisfaction and decrease burnout. The corporate practices do this but not for your benefit, so its vital that you assess how you practice.

It’s also great to see that primary care physicians can become very successful financially in this era of medicine.

Let’s continue the discussion over at the Doctor Money Matters private FB group (you need to request membership).

You can follow Doc G’s blog at www.diversefi.com where he goes into depth on these topics. You can also follow him on twitter @DocGDiversefi

This is the rockstar finance ranking of the bloggers by net worth. 4 of the top 5 are physicians, but Doc G is one of the younger ones. One of our previous guests is also on there. Dr. Cory Fawcett. (Episode 5 about debt)

Follow me:

Twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters

WTF is up with MOC?

How many of you listening write checks to your specialty board for the privilege of Maintenance of Certification? I will pay over $3k over a 10 yr period plus a ton of paperwork to my board so they can sign off on my certification. Most of you listeners do so as well. We do this because its just another of the burdensome regulations that physicians have to do to maintain licensure and certification and also most insurance companies expect it in order for us to bill our services. Most of us have never questioned the step even though we hate the fees and paperwork.

My next guest Dr. Westby Fisher looked into the board certification MOC for internal medicine and went down the proverbial rabbit hole and discovered or should I say uncovered a story that seems to have very little to do with physician certification or patient care. 

Westby Fisher, MD

This is a long episode into 2 parts. Please listen to this episode first and then part 2. I would say you will be shocked but with the way things have been headed in healthcare, you probably won’t be.

Thanks Dr. Fisher for all your work to help physicians become aware of the MOC process.

I encourage those listening to contribute to the go fund me page and help fund this fight. Lets stop this physician learned helplessness and take our profession back.  

In my opinion, the whole MOC process is like a bad actively managed mutual fund. I see no value in the additional layer of management forced upon us and its costing our time and $$ while I don’t see evidence of improved performance over time. I expect better than this from the “academic leaders” of our respective fields. What do you think?

Let’s continue the discussion over at the Doctor Money Matters private FB group (you need to request membership).

You can follow Dr. Fisher’s blog at http://drwes.blogspot.com/ where he goes into depth on these topics. You can also follow him on twitter @doctorwes  and help fund this fight https://www.gofundme.com/practicing-physicians-of-america

Follow me:

Twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters –

WTF is up with MOC?

How many of you listening write checks to your specialty board for the privilege of Maintenance of Certification? I will pay over $3k over a 10 yr period plus a ton of paperwork to my board so they can sign off on my certification. Most of you listeners do so as well. We do this because its just another of the burdensome regulations that physicians have to do to maintain licensure and certification and also most insurance companies expect it in order for us to bill our services. Most of us have never questioned the step even though we hate the fees and paperwork.

My next guest Dr. Westby Fisher looked into the board certification MOC for internal medicine and went down the proverbial rabbit hole and discovered or should I say uncovered a story that seems to have very little to do with physician certification or patient care. 

Westby Fisher, MD

This is a long episode into 2 parts. Please listen to this episode first and then part 2. I would say you will be shocked but with the way things have been headed in healthcare, you probably won’t be.

Thanks Dr. Fisher for all your work to help physicians become aware of the MOC process.

I encourage those listening to contribute to the go fund me page and help fund this fight. Lets stop this physician learned helplessness and take our profession back.  

In my opinion, the whole MOC process is like a bad actively managed mutual fund. I see no value in the additional layer of management forced upon us and its costing our time and $$ while I don’t see evidence of improved performance over time. I expect better than this from the “academic leaders” of our respective fields. What do you think?

Let’s continue the discussion over at the Doctor Money Matters private FB group (you need to request membership).

You can follow Dr. Fisher’s blog at http://drwes.blogspot.com/ where he goes into depth on these topics. You can also follow him on twitter @doctorwes  and help fund this fight https://www.gofundme.com/practicing-physicians-of-america

Follow me:

Twitter @drmoneymatters

Instagram @doctormoneymatters

Facebook @doctormoneymatters