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TO THE LAB: HOW IN-HOUSE TESTING
STEERS INCOME TO YOUR PRACTICE
By Dylan Chadwick, Staff Writer for Physicians Office Resource
We all laughed at Casey, bright-eyed and eager, when
we started our hike. He'd seemingly bought out an
entire military surplus store in preparation, while we'd
opted (through a heady combination of laziness and
daring) to pack as little as possible. Most curiously was
Casey's hand-pump micron water filter. Roughly the
size of a cinder-block and forged from heavy metal, we
snorted incredulously as he clipped the device to his
pack, hiked up his shorts and started his journey,
clattering like an old Buick.
However, hiking a 70 mile swatch of the Appalachian
trail proved more treacherous than we'd imagined, and as
the sweltering humidity of the Tennessee backwoods
enveloped us, the need for water grew to maddening
levels. The iodine tablets we'd packed tasted too strongly
of paint, rendering anything we put them in practically
undrinkable and our "fool-proof" method of boiling water
to purify it took way too long. In a moment of parched
desperation, we turned to Casey, sitting cross-legged on an
32
old stump, patiently pumping ice-cold potable water into
his canteen. Sheepishly, we approached him for help.
"Sure," he replied with a grin. "I ought to charge you
though." It occurred to me, there in the Appalachian
wilderness, that Casey had taken the time to specialize,
and despite the additional weight and effort his equipment
entailed, he now had what we all wanted...and was poised
to make a killing.
Similarly, in a changing medical landscape,
physicians willing to specialize their practices are the
ones who'll succeed. Though evolving technology and its
subsequent improvements in patient patient care have
brought substantial changes to the medical sector, an era
of economic uncertainty and fiscal instability may wring
just as prescient an effect. According to an article by Ben
Brown, MD, reductions in Medicare contract payments
(some as much as 21.3%) and physician reimbursements
from insurers might result in critical decreases in
physician salaries, medical profits and general revenue
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