Dr. Keith Berger
Appearances
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
I could practice it the way my dad, my grandfather, my son and my brother doctors. His son's a doctor. My daughter-in-law's a doctor. We understand medicine. We get terrific ratings from our patients, but we may not be making the big bucks, and we are not making the big bucks in our practice, but we are treating people really the way they want to be treated or better.
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
Well, last year I lost money for the first time ever, ever, in 43 years of practice.
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
So imagine you've got maybe tens of thousands of dollars at stake and you don't know, are you ever going to get it paid? How are you going to get it paid? It's just aggravating to be working in that kind of environment where every day it seems like a breakdown of some kind, an issue, and you're going to have to handle it and you have to go through this very elaborate process. It's aggravating.
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
So when my staff are tied up doing, you know, fixing mistakes that insurance companies made or arguing with insurance companies about why they should pay for a colonoscopy or a CAT scan, you know, that sucks.
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
First of all, it's really very discouraging because we work hard at being good at what we do and we hate to tell a patient, well, sorry, your insurance company isn't going to cover this when they should.
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
uh so it's demoralizing from that standpoint and it's time you know like i said my office manager i only have one i pay her very well but how many jobs can she do and she's got to go through 100 charts that were underpaid by one of those insurance companies so i just imagine i don't know it's like sitting at a table of a poker game knowing that it's rigged how long do you want to play
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
I have. I got so dejected about this, my wife said to me, she said, honey, you've got to make up your mind or you're going to stay and you can't. You've got to stop complaining about this. I have some very good friends I've known for years in different GI practices. I looked at what they were doing. They were all bought out by private equity. For now, though, Keith is staying independent.
The Journal.
Even Doctors Are Frustrated With Health Insurance
I used to tell people all the time coming out of medical school and residency, oh, you should go into private practice, be independent. It's great. You create the practice that fits you instead of kind of get in the corporate stress environment. Now I wouldn't advise anybody to do it.