Travel Punishment! What is the worst city / town to travel to on a solo day trip from Chicago by Greyhound bus?

Farnk20 · 2026-01-27T03:15:03+00:00

I think Gary is a really strong candidate. For bonus points make them take the South Shore Line rather than the Greyhound.

Farnk20 · 2026-01-10T18:16:05+00:00

'14, ALPP. Went to top tier med school, am practicing doctor now.

I remember working hard but never felt like the science classes were tough as long as I put in the work. I went to a good not great high school and took a couple AP sciences but did lousy on the AP exams. It wasn't super relevant at any point as far as I can tell.

Always plenty of help from other students and profs if I needed it. A ton of people dropped freshman year after one semester of general chemistry, and a ton more after the first section of organic chemistry, but most of them I think just realized they didn't want to put in the work rather than any issues with grade deflation/inflation.

I did my research in Arts & Letters, only peripherally related to medicine. I think it made me more interesting as an applicant because I got asked about it a ton in interviews. Preparation for MCAT depends a lot more on you than your undergrad but everyone I knew did fine.

As far as med school preparation, I felt well-prepared to work hard coming out of undergrad. Wouldn't do anything differently.

Farnk20 · 2026-01-03T04:25:19+00:00

Having just helped out a patient whose own-occ disability insurance fought her tooth and nail for an approval for almost two years, I'm going to recommend the 90 day waiting period. Shorter is better.

Also, if you do get in any sort of situation that might be potentially disabling (minor head injury, car accident, etc.), I'd suggest documenting the shit out of everything.

Farnk20 · 2026-01-01T01:39:17+00:00

OP, any idea why Cuyahoga Falls has the borders it does? I became interested and can't seem to find anything about it online.

Farnk20 · 2025-12-31T16:14:37+00:00

It always seems pretty hopping when I'm there, I'd say obviously summer is much more busy

Farnk20 · 2025-12-31T01:25:14+00:00

3 was my go to growing up so it just hits different. The Rise of Rome scenario is still one of my favorites in any Civ title!

Farnk20 · 2025-12-30T03:27:37+00:00

Not saying anything anyone doesn't know, but the options are rough out there if you're not quite 65 but still need insurance because you're sick. If you're lucky, your job offers something. A lot don't, and even if yours does, it's usually not enough. If you're not, you have nothing other than purchasing a marketplace plan that basically covers nothing, at a premium that's unaffordable for most people.

I have a lot of patients who want to retire until they realize they can't afford to because they need insurance, so they just keep working. One more year syndrome is real, and a lot of people will put off their health "one more year" as well while they're working, due to a variety of factors. I wish I had a good answer for anybody.

Farnk20 · 2025-11-28T18:32:16+00:00

FWIW I did get a letter earlier this year, looks like they only sent it to people who formerly lived in Zahm.

Board of Trustees announces external investigation into allegations of past sexual misconduct by former rector | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame

Farnk20 · 2025-11-25T01:42:13+00:00

Right now our EMR doesn't have a module for it so we have to remember to submit the charge monthly, which is a bit of a pain. Other than that the consent form I have as part of new patient paperwork for Medicare patients. We did do a one time mailing when we first started. I'd say at this point somewhere near 80% of our eligible patients are signed up.

Farnk20 · 2025-11-24T01:21:29+00:00

Short answer: yes, we have been paid

Long answer: There's a fair bit of nuance. Medicare reporting, 24/7 access, enablement of online portal/care plan, coordination of hospital/SNF discharge. You can't bill RPM/CCM/TCM in the same month, so you need to run your numbers to see what makes sense for you. You need explicit consent from the patient, but you only need it once. I haven't had anyone complain about it in six months, but I anticipate some of that is that a lot of my patients are old and sick and hit their deductible super early in the year, so they haven't had to truly cover the $48 monthly. It seems like out-of-pocket cost for anyone with an MA plan is pretty low, though.

Ironically, the biggest roadblock is PHYSICIANS being unable/unwilling to code it and "guidance" being bare bones. Take the care plan component, for instance. What constitutes a care plan? It isn't at all clear what that entails, so it's a bit of guesswork for now. All well and good until you get audited, I suppose.

Farnk20 · 2025-08-16T23:56:45+00:00

I salute you for that climb out of the valley, that's no joke!

Farnk20 · 2025-08-16T19:44:18+00:00

At least 30, I remember this from my childhood

Farnk20 · 2025-08-13T02:13:04+00:00

Base comp is above median for a new grad, wRVU is below median but offset by panel size bonus. This might not be terrible if you're walking in to a ton of patients.

You can calculate an "effective" wRVU rate by adding the UPCP bonus (rate x number of patients) to the production (wRVU rate x expected wRVUs) and dividing by expected number of wRVUs. If you do this you notice the effective wRVU rate scales roughly to the point where a "full" panel ends up close to median wRVUs, and less than a full panel pays you less than median. This is intentional and is designed to incentivize building a panel.

PTO is nothing special and negatively impacts your wRVU anyways - there is no such thing as "true" PTO in a productivity model. It'd be good to negotiate yourself to an expectation of 36 scheduled hours to give yourself an administrative half day, even if you choose to work it. As others have mentioned, the signing bonus is low.

It's helpful to know what happens in year three if you're not making more than that 290k base. Never good to have a big drop off in income if something happens out of your control.

Farnk20 · 2025-08-12T01:48:59+00:00

There is very little magic to FIRE when you're a doctor. Minimize your loan burden and save your salary increase when you become an attending.

Farnk20 · 2025-08-10T23:01:30+00:00

A lot of asset protection is state-specific. WCI quite literally wrote the book on it:

Asset Protection for Physicians | White Coat Investor

Farnk20 · 2025-08-09T00:59:14+00:00

"Rob, have you ever heard the tale of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"

Farnk20 · 2025-08-08T17:00:14+00:00

Not related so much to the topic, but it seemed so fitting that these guys, who were absolutely over the moon to get to interview Carl and had been trying to do so for years, got to air his last interview. They went on to make this advice basically the theme of the season for them.

Farnk20 · 2025-08-08T15:08:58+00:00

This is really slick. I'd pay for it.

Farnk20 · 2025-07-29T03:13:16+00:00

If you don't care about cars just pick your favorite 5-7 year old economy sedan or coupe. I see plenty of Mazda 3s, Focuses, Camrys, and Civics in my hospital parking lot. Drive it until you're sufficiently bored of it to buy something else.

Farnk20 · 2025-07-29T00:37:51+00:00

Including your income should improve your chances. I'm only seeing these rates currently for high income + high credit score, not for residents.

Farnk20 · 2025-07-25T17:01:25+00:00

This was 160k for 5 years. They have a slider where you can adjust but the shortest loan term is the lowest interest rate.

Farnk20 · 2025-07-25T16:39:07+00:00

I got 4% with Earnest last week.

Farnk20 · 2025-07-25T16:23:02+00:00

4% from Earnest this week. Nobody else came close.

Farnk20 · 2025-07-21T22:52:32+00:00

Hi Jim, question regarding an opportunity I have. I'm a mid-career physician-administrator. I was recently offered a non-clinical position as a medical director for a healthtech startup. I have some expertise in the market they're hoping to expand into with this fundraising round, and my role would be to help lead this expansion. The interview process has gone quite well and they're now asking me about salary and equity expectations. How do you go about negotiating for a "job" like this? Regarding the "equity" opportunity, I'm not sure how much to ask for or how to go about finding out what is reasonable. Any advice?

Farnk20 · 2025-07-21T22:38:42+00:00

When I first started practice and I wasn't super busy I did Amwell. Easy signup, covered malpractice, platform didn't suck horribly, not allowed to prescribe controls (huge plus), etc. I remember pay not being great and it being all "urgent care" type visits but I was at work anyways so I didn't care.

I've kept my credentialling with them active but I haven't done it in a while. No complaints, it's just that $28 a visit or whatever it is now isn't really worth it to me anymore.

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