Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994 TAG: 9406210098
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
\ Tired of being told they make too much money, doctors are going to juggle the books to make it seem they're earning less.
The American Medical Association is changing the way it calculates doctors' incomes, lumping the salaries of private practition-ers with those of federal government doctors and young doctors in training, who make considerably less.
``Yeah, it's an accounting change,'' said Dr. Nancy W. Dickey, the AMA's secretary-treasurer. ``But the press leaves out the footnotes. Therefore our only choice is to make a change so the numbers show the whole picture. Now the physician looks less like he's gouging America.''
The latest calculations, based on 1992 data, show that the mean income of U.S. doctors in private practice is $177,400 a year. That varies from $111,800 for general practitioners to $253,300 for radiologists, the highest-paid group.
In contrast, doctors in training earn $22,000 to $30,000 a year. The AMA has not previously collected information on the incomes of government doctors, but they are known to earn much less than doctors in private practice.
The AMA adopted the accounting change at its annual meeting, which ended Thursday. The first reports reflecting the change are expected in two or three years.
``It's unabashed deception of the public or anyone else who would want to know what physicians make,'' said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizens' Health Research Group in Washington, D.C. ``It sounds like the kind of snake oil that the AMA is very fond of criticizing others for.''
Dickey argued, however, that the current figures reflect only doctors' prime earning years. They fail to take account of the many years of training that doctors undergo and the long hours they work.
``I think the doctors were trying to say, `Let's give the whole picture,' '' she said.
Doctors leave medical school with an average of $50,000 to $100,000 in debts, she said. They spend three to 10 years as residents in training, working 80 to 100 hours a week.
It is only then that their incomes can soar, she said. But even then, the doctors are working about 60 hours a week, she said.
Some doctors wanted to stop the AMA from issuing income reports altogether. The AMA's board said it couldn't do that because ``the media would continue to publicize data on physician income obtained from other sources.''
``The AMA is, at the bottom of it, a trade association representing the economic interests of doctors,'' Wolfe said. ``The more moves the AMA makes like this, the more they earn the scorn of people in this country.''
by CNB