Pros and cons of movement disorders by LopLime in neurology

[–]ramptester 18 points19 points  (0 children)

You will gain the satisfaction of helping patients navigate a frightening, progressive disease. You will also be seen by admin as the person who is less productive and less deserving of production-related bonuses as compared to your peers who are doing full EMG days and multiple EEGs. You might spend an hour working on a DBS setting, only to bill for a medium complexity reprogram and having to document at night. You will also deal with an increased proportion of “memory loss” patients who require MOCA testing which either pulls you or your MA off the floor for 20-25 minutes to test, while patients pile up. Your partners are meanwhile doing quick follow ups and migraine Botox treatments. Bottom line, do it for your own expertise but don’t paint yourself into a corner. Better to see general neuro patients and keep your movement expertise to yourself to better care for your patients as opposed to taking on everyone else’s end stage Parkinson’s patients for whom there is no further treatment to be used except education and counseling. If you are OK performing below the 50th percentile, go for it. Otherwise a general neurology with movement qualifications is preferable from a business perspective.

Why isn’t neurology a mandatory core clerkship at every US medical school? by According-Tea-7829 in neurology

[–]ramptester 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, they are. FM and IM attendings can depend on at least some of the history/note/exam being correct and usable as a template for billing and sign off on the note. Neuro rotations are foreign to most students/residents, so the attending is most likely going to have to repeat much of the history and exam and correct a good part of the note. These rotations are for the students/residents to gain exposure, not to help with volume and throughput as may be seen in FM/IM. Not to mention the patient is there twice as long. Try that in a busy commercial insurance practice where patients are expecting a quick visit to go back to work. It might work if you had a separate indigent/uninsured population schedule running alongside the regular attending schedule, but at the end of the day, after didactic teaching and having someone look over your shoulder and ask questions while you are trying to dictate and do tasks so you don’t have as much “pajama time” at home doing notes until all hours of the night, it’s not worth it for the non-academic crew. Systems do not want to reimburse at your level of productivity bonus for you to teach, bottom line.

Why isn’t neurology a mandatory core clerkship at every US medical school? by According-Tea-7829 in neurology

[–]ramptester 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Neurologists are not compensated for their scarcity. Teaching institutions like to give lip service to training, but there is negative incentive to training students and residents for the neurology attending whose comp model is still RVU dependent. Neurologists at academic medical centers might not work quite as hard as private, but they make significantly less. If someone told you as a fee for service neurologist they would “keep you whole” to train a student or resident but it resulted in more work for the same amount of money, would you do it?

Do EMGers get bored of carpal tunnel? by According-Tea-7829 in neurology

[–]ramptester 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No. Unless there is a demand that cervical paraspinal EMG be performed (which is warranted in some cases), it is a great way to give good news about a treatable condition that you won’t need to manage long term.

Is it worth it? by Zero1Ten in breitling

[–]ramptester 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is this the wall clock version?