"The 15 minutes to set the wrist would be far more richly compensated than the time it takes me to sit down and talk with that patient about what happened, why he fell, what is going on there," Finucane said, "by about 4 to 1."
Contribution unrecognized
There's value in both, Finucane said. But the country's medical reimbursement system doesn't always recognize the geriatrician's contribution. Many geriatrics patients rely on Medicare, which poorly compensates such "assessment" visits with doctors.
The key, experts agree, is to draw more medical trainees into geriatrics.
Colburn, for example, owes $150,000 in loans from her four years of medical school at the University of Pittsburgh. According to a Medical Group Management Association study of physicians' compensation, she might make slightly more than that in one year as a practicing geriatrician. But if Colburn had chosen gastroenterology, as one example, she would earn more than double her debt load in one year.
None of this matters to Colburn, who is applying for fellowships in geriatrics at Johns Hopkins.
"It is kind of discouraging and disconcerting that we have this huge need and yet there's not a huge value on the people who do it, but that is not a reason for me not to choose [geriatrics]," she said. "I don't expect that choosing this field will mean I'll get rich doing it.
"Hopefully, our billing system will change over time. But in the meantime, I'll be doing something that is meaningful to me."
tanika.white@baltsun.com
